1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
4 <!-- -*- Mode: Sgml -*-
8 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
12 <h1>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
14 <h2>About the checklist</h2>
17 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
18 of old packages. Note that this list is not `official'; it simply
19 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
20 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
21 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
22 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
23 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
24 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
25 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
26 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
27 used below refer to the current version.
31 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
32 package complies with currently (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
33 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
34 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
35 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
36 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
37 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
38 picking your way through this list.
41 <h2>The checklist</h2>
46 * Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
47 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
48 in essential forever unless significant work is done. [3.8]
49 * Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8. [4.4]
50 * Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
52 * Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
53 changelog format for the Debian Archive. [4.4.1]
54 * New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
55 test suite provided by the package should not be run. [4.9.1]
56 * All control files must be encoded in UTF-8. [5.1]
57 * The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
58 start the daemon again if it's already running. [9.3.2]
59 * /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
60 arguments and supports assignment. [10.4]
64 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
65 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
66 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
67 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
68 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
69 else is necessary. [4.9]
70 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
71 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
72 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
73 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
74 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
75 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
76 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
77 * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
78 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
80 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
81 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
82 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
83 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
84 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
85 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
87 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
88 * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
89 a version number. [5.6.12]
90 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
91 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
92 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
93 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
94 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
95 * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
96 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
97 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
98 common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
99 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
100 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
102 * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
103 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete. [11.8.6]
104 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
105 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
106 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
107 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
108 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
109 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
111 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
112 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
113 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
114 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
116 * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
120 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
121 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
122 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
123 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
124 logical operators. [10.4]
125 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
126 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
128 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
129 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
130 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
131 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
132 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
133 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
134 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
135 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
136 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
137 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
138 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
140 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
141 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
142 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
143 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
144 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
148 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
149 should to a must) [6.1]
153 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
157 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
158 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
159 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
160 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
161 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
162 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
163 of the process. [10.2]
164 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
165 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
166 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
170 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
171 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
172 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
173 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
174 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
175 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
176 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
177 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
179 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
180 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
181 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
182 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
183 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
184 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
185 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
186 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
187 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
189 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
190 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
191 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
192 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
193 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
194 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
195 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
199 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
200 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
201 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
202 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
203 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
204 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
208 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
209 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
213 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
214 the minor version number:
215 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
216 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
217 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
218 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
219 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
220 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
221 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
222 deb-building tool-chain.
223 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
224 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
225 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
226 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
227 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
228 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
229 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
230 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
231 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
232 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
233 sections about changelog files.
234 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
236 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
237 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
238 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
239 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
244 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
245 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
246 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
247 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
248 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
252 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
253 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
254 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
255 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
256 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
257 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
258 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
259 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
260 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
261 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
265 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
266 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
267 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
268 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
269 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
270 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
271 clean target is called. [7.6]
272 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
273 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
275 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
276 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
277 are still a bug. [12.1]
281 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
282 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
283 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
285 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
286 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
287 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
288 they add themselves as an alternative for
289 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
290 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
291 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
292 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
293 environment variable. [10.1]
294 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
295 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
296 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
297 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
298 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
299 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
300 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
301 build rules, please see below]
305 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
306 standard packages [2.5]
307 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
308 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
309 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
310 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
311 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
312 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
313 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
314 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
315 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
316 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
320 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
321 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
322 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
323 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
324 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
325 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
326 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
327 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
328 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
329 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
330 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
332 - X Windows related things:
333 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
335 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
336 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
337 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
338 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
339 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
340 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
341 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
342 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
346 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
347 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
348 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
350 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
351 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
356 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
357 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
358 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
359 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
360 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
365 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
366 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
370 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
371 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
375 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
376 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
380 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
381 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
382 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
383 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
384 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
385 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
386 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
387 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
392 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
393 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
394 and the other without [11.8.1]
398 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
399 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
400 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
401 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
402 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
403 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
404 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
405 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
406 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
408 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
409 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
410 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
411 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
412 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
413 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
414 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
415 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
416 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
417 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
418 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
419 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
424 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
425 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
429 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
430 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
431 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
432 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
433 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
434 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
435 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
436 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
437 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
438 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
439 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
440 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
441 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
442 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
443 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
444 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
446 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
447 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
448 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
449 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
451 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
452 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
453 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
454 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
459 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
460 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
461 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
465 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
466 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
468 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
469 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
470 - The location of the GPL has changed to
471 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
472 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
473 other major licenses [12.6]
474 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
475 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
476 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
477 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
479 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
480 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
481 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
482 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
485 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
491 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
492 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
493 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
494 Section 5 and Section 6.
495 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
496 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
497 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
498 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
499 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
501 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
502 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
503 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
504 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
505 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
506 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
507 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
508 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
509 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
510 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
511 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
517 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
518 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
519 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
520 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
522 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
523 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
524 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
527 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
528 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
529 installs shared libraries
530 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
534 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
535 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
536 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
538 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
539 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
542 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
543 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
544 file extension as the referenced file
546 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
547 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
549 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
550 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
551 start, stop, restart, force-reload
552 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
555 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
556 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
557 be installed into /etc/cron.d
559 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
560 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
561 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
562 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
565 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
566 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
569 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
570 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
571 reasonable default configuration
573 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
574 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
575 by all news servers and clients
577 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
578 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
579 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
580 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
581 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
583 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
584 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
587 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
589 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
590 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
592 * updated section about `Configuration files':
593 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
595 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
599 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
602 where <arch> is one of the following:
603 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
605 * detailed rules for /usr/local
609 * editor/pager policy
615 * don't install shared libraries as executable
617 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
619 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
621 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
626 * "Standard for Console Messages"
628 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
630 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
632 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
634 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
638 * No hard links in source packages
640 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
642 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
646 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
654 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
658 sgml-live-element-indicator: t