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5 upgrading-checklist.html
6 Author : Manoj Srivastava ( srivasta@tiamat.datasync.com )
7 Created On : Thu Oct 29 20:54:48 1998
8 Created On Node : tiamat.datasync.com
9 Last Modified By : Julian Gilbey
10 Last Modified On : Mon Jun 19 20:06:50 2000
11 Last Machine Used: polya.maths.qmw.ac.uk
13 Status : Unknown, Use with caution!
20 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
24 <h1>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
26 <h2>About the checklist</h2>
29 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
30 of old packages. Note, that this list is not `official.' If you have
31 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
32 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
37 Here is how the check list works: Check out which policy version your
38 packages complies with currently. Than move upwards until the top and
39 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. If an
40 item does not give you enough details, please check out the Policy
44 <h2>The checklist</h2>
50 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
51 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
52 package with debugging information optionally.
53 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses html changelog
54 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
55 should always be generated for the upstream changes.
56 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
57 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy.
58 - Policy for packages providing an X server has been codified
59 (formalizes existing practice - use virtual package xserver)
60 - Policy for packages providing an X terminal emulator has been
61 codified (use virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
62 - Policy for packages providing an X window manager has been
63 codified (use virtual package x-window-anager, and also as an
64 alternative for /usr/bin/x-window-manager. The policy has
65 guidelines on how to calculate priority)
66 - Policy for packages providing an X fonts has been
67 codified. Please look into the manual for details; this section
68 has been written from scratch.
69 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
70 has been clarified. Please read the manual for details.
71 - Policy for packages providing an X application default has been
73 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles.
76 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
77 always creating theshared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
83 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
84 etc. Should not affect many packages.
89 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
90 /usr/share/doc/<package>. This symlink has to be
91 maintained by postinst and prerm, because dpkg will cause
92 problems otherwise. Create/remote the symlinks using debhelper
93 or see section "6.4. Accessing the documentation" for more
95 - Introduced source dependencies. (Whereas this ought to demand a
96 major policy number rise, we've only just had one of them, so
97 I'm going to use a minor number instead.)
98 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
99 Packages should not be touching this directory, anyway, but
100 should use update-rc.d instead.
101 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
102 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
103 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
104 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
106 - Compiled examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples with
107 symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
108 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself.
109 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
111 - Added MIME sub-policy document.
112 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR.
113 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
114 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
116 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
117 version should also be included. Such a version may be prepared
118 using lynx -dump -nolist.)
121 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
122 added: see section 5.1.
128 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
129 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
130 .la files must go in the run-time library package.
136 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
137 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
139 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
140 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
141 - The location of the GPL has changed to
142 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
143 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
145 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
146 include the .la files in the -dev packages.
147 - Use logrotate to rotate log files
148 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
150 - There is now anassi=ociated menu policy, in a separate document,
151 that carries the full weight of Debian policy.
152 - The files `/var/run/utmp', `/var/log/wtmp' and
153 `/var/log/lastlog' must be installed writeable by group
154 utmp. Programs who need to modify those files must be installed
161 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
162 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
163 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
164 Section 5 and Section 6.
165 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
166 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
167 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
168 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
169 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
171 - Modified the section about changelog files to accomodate
172 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
173 upstream chagelog files should now be accessible as
174 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
175 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
176 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
177 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
178 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
179 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
180 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
181 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
187 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
188 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
189 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
190 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
192 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
193 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
194 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
197 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
198 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
199 installs shared libraries
200 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
204 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
205 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
206 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
208 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
209 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
212 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
213 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
214 file extension as the referenced file
216 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
217 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
219 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
220 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
221 start, stop, restart, force-reload
222 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
225 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
226 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
227 be installed into /etc/cron.d
229 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
230 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
231 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
232 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
235 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
236 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
239 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
240 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
241 reasonable default configuration
243 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
244 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
245 by all news servers and clients
247 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Windows system:
248 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
249 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
250 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
251 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
253 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
254 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
257 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
259 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
260 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
262 * updated section about `Configuration files':
263 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
265 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
269 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
272 where <arch> is one of the following:
273 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
275 * detailed rules for /usr/local
279 * editor/pager policy
285 * don't install shared libraries as executable
287 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
289 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
291 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
296 * "Standard for Console Messages"
298 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
300 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
302 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
304 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
308 * No hard links in source packages
310 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
312 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
316 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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