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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 * The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
47 http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html
48 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
50 * All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
51 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
52 back on other methods. [3.9.1]
53 * The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
54 common-licenses and should be referenced from there. [12.5]
58 * Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
59 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
60 in essential forever unless significant work is done. [3.8]
61 * Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8. [4.4]
62 * Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
64 * Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
65 changelog format for the Debian Archive. [4.4.1]
66 * New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
67 test suite provided by the package should not be run. [4.9.1]
68 * All control files must be encoded in UTF-8. [5.1]
69 * debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
70 preceding whitespace. [5.2]
71 * Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
72 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
73 the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
74 behavior of the init system in Debian. [9.3]
75 * The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
76 start the daemon again if it's already running. [9.3.2]
77 * /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
78 init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
80 * /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
81 arguments and supports assignment. [10.4]
82 * User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
83 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail. [11.6]
87 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
88 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
89 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
90 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
91 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
92 else is necessary. [4.9]
93 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
94 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
95 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
96 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
97 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
98 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
99 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
100 * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
101 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
102 used that way. [4.13]
103 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
104 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
105 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
106 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
107 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
108 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
110 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
111 * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
112 a version number. [5.6.12]
113 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
114 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
115 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
116 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
117 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
118 * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
119 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
120 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
121 common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
122 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
123 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
125 * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
126 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete. [11.8.6]
127 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
128 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
129 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
130 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
131 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
132 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
134 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
135 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
136 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
137 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
139 * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
143 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
144 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
145 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
146 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
147 logical operators. [10.4]
148 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
149 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
151 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
152 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
153 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
154 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
155 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
156 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
157 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
158 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
159 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
160 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
161 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
163 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
164 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
165 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
166 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
167 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
171 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
172 should to a must) [6.1]
176 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
180 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
181 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
182 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
183 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
184 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
185 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
186 of the process. [10.2]
187 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
188 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
189 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
193 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
194 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
195 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
196 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
197 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
198 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
199 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
200 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
202 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
203 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
204 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
205 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
206 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
207 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
208 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
209 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
210 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
212 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
213 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
214 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
215 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
216 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
217 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
218 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
222 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
223 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
224 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
225 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
226 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
227 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
231 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
232 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
236 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
237 the minor version number:
238 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
239 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
240 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
241 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
242 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
243 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
244 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
245 deb-building tool-chain.
246 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
247 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
248 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
249 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
250 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
251 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
252 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
253 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
254 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
255 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
256 sections about changelog files.
257 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
259 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
260 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
261 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
262 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
267 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
268 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
269 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
270 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
271 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
275 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
276 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
277 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
278 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
279 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
280 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
281 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
282 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
283 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
284 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
288 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
289 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
290 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
291 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
292 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
293 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
294 clean target is called. [7.6]
295 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
296 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
298 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
299 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
300 are still a bug. [12.1]
304 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
305 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
306 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
308 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
309 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
310 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
311 they add themselves as an alternative for
312 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
313 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
314 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
315 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
316 environment variable. [10.1]
317 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
318 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
319 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
320 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
321 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
322 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
323 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
324 build rules, please see below]
328 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
329 standard packages [2.5]
330 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
331 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
332 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
333 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
334 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
335 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
336 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
337 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
338 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
339 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
343 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
344 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
345 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
346 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
347 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
348 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
349 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
350 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
351 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
352 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
353 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
355 - X Windows related things:
356 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
358 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
359 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
360 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
361 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
362 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
363 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
364 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
365 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
369 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
370 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
371 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
373 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
374 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
379 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
380 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
381 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
382 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
383 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
388 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
389 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
393 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
394 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
398 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
399 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
403 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
404 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
405 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
406 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
407 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
408 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
409 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
410 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
415 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
416 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
417 and the other without [11.8.1]
421 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
422 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
423 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
424 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
425 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
426 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
427 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
428 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
429 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
431 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
432 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
433 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
434 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
435 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
436 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
437 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
438 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
439 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
440 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
441 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
442 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
447 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
448 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
452 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
453 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
454 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
455 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
456 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
457 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
458 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
459 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
460 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
461 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
462 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
463 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
464 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
465 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
466 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
467 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
469 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
470 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
471 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
472 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
474 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
475 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
476 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
477 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
482 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
483 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
484 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
488 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
489 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
491 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
492 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
493 - The location of the GPL has changed to
494 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
495 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
496 other major licenses [12.6]
497 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
498 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
499 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
500 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
502 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
503 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
504 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
505 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
508 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
514 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
515 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
516 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
517 Section 5 and Section 6.
518 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
519 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
520 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
521 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
522 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
524 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
525 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
526 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
527 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
528 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
529 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
530 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
531 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
532 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
533 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
534 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
540 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
541 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
542 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
543 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
545 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
546 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
547 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
550 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
551 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
552 installs shared libraries
553 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
557 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
558 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
559 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
561 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
562 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
565 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
566 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
567 file extension as the referenced file
569 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
570 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
572 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
573 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
574 start, stop, restart, force-reload
575 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
578 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
579 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
580 be installed into /etc/cron.d
582 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
583 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
584 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
585 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
588 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
589 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
592 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
593 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
594 reasonable default configuration
596 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
597 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
598 by all news servers and clients
600 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
601 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
602 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
603 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
604 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
606 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
607 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
610 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
612 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
613 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
615 * updated section about `Configuration files':
616 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
618 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
622 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
625 where <arch> is one of the following:
626 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
628 * detailed rules for /usr/local
632 * editor/pager policy
638 * don't install shared libraries as executable
640 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
642 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
644 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
649 * "Standard for Console Messages"
651 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
653 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
655 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
657 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
661 * No hard links in source packages
663 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
665 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
669 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
677 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
681 sgml-live-element-indicator: t