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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 : Manoj Srivastava
10 Last Modified On : Sat Oct 26 12:22:40 2002
11 Last Machine Used: glaurung.green-gryphon.com
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'; it simply
31 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
32 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
33 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
34 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
35 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
36 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
37 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
38 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
39 used below refer to the current version.
43 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
44 package complies with currently (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
45 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
46 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
47 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
48 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
49 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
50 picking your way through this list.
53 <h2>The checklist</h2>
58 - The section describing the Description: package filed once again has
59 full details of the long description format. [5.7.2]
63 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
64 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
65 documented in the changelog file. [13.7]
66 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
67 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
68 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
69 clean target is called[7.6]
70 - A new apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
71 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
73 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
74 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
75 are still a bug. [13.1]
79 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
80 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [11.6]
81 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
83 - task packages are now not permitted; tasks are now created by a
84 special Tasks: field in the control file. [2.3.8]
85 - window managers that support netwm now can added 20 points when
86 they add themselves as an alternative for
87 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [12.8.4]
88 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
89 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. These were actually
90 introduced in 3.5.6, but I forgot to mention them here. [7]
91 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
92 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
93 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
94 environment variable. [11.1]
95 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
96 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
97 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
98 review the new rules. [7.6, 5.2]
99 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintiner
100 scripts. Long rationale. [9]
104 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
105 standard packages [2.2]
106 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
107 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [12.5]
108 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
109 a ``serious'' policy violation
110 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
111 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
112 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
113 ask permission to expose that information during the install [12.5]
118 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
119 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
120 symlinks or .so pages to do this [13.1]
121 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
122 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
123 by scripts; see section 11.7.3 for the whole story]
124 - Included a new section 11.9.1 describing the use of
125 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
126 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
127 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
128 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
130 - X Windows related things:
131 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
133 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [12.8.3]
134 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
135 fonts for the X Window System [12.8.5]
136 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [12.8.6]
137 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
138 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [12.8.7]
139 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
140 OSF/Motif-linked ones [12.8.8]
145 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
146 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
147 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
149 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
150 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
156 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
157 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
158 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
159 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
160 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
166 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
167 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [12.8.6]
172 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
173 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [9.1]
178 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
179 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [12.8.5]
184 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
185 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
186 /etc/default/; see [10.3.2] for details
187 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
188 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
189 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
190 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [13.3]
191 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
197 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
198 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
199 and the other without [12.8.1]
204 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
205 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
206 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [11.1]
207 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
208 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
209 should always be generated for the upstream changes [13.8]
210 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (4.x)
211 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
212 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
214 - X server (virtual package xserver) [12.8.2]
215 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [12.8.3]
216 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
217 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
218 calculation guidelines) [12.8.4]
219 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
220 - X application defaults [12.8.6]
221 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
222 has been clarified; see [12.8.7]
223 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
224 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
225 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
231 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
232 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
237 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
238 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
239 and prerm scripts. Details are in [13.4]
240 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
241 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
242 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
243 update-rc.d instead) [10.3.4]
244 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
245 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
246 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
247 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
248 incompatible way.) [10.3.3]
249 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
250 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
251 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [13.7]
252 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
254 - Added MIME sub-policy document [10.7; mime-policy]
255 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
256 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
257 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
259 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
260 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
261 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [13.8]
262 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
268 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
269 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
270 .la files must go in the run-time library package [11.2]
275 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
276 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
277 not all known. [10.1]
278 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
279 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [2.4.1]
280 - The location of the GPL has changed to
281 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
282 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
283 other major licenses [13.6]
284 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
285 include the .la files in the -dev packages [11.2]
286 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [11.8]
287 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
289 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
290 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [10.6; menu-policy]
291 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
292 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [12.3]
298 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
299 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
300 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
301 Section 5 and Section 6.
302 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
303 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
304 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
305 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
306 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
308 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
309 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
310 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
311 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
312 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
313 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
314 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
315 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
316 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
317 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
318 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
324 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
325 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
326 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
327 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
329 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
330 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
331 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
334 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
335 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
336 installs shared libraries
337 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
341 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
342 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
343 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
345 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
346 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
349 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
350 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
351 file extension as the referenced file
353 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
354 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
356 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
357 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
358 start, stop, restart, force-reload
359 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
362 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
363 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
364 be installed into /etc/cron.d
366 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
367 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
368 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
369 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
372 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
373 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
376 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
377 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
378 reasonable default configuration
380 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
381 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
382 by all news servers and clients
384 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
385 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
386 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
387 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
388 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
390 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
391 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
394 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 97
396 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
397 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
399 * updated section about `Configuration files':
400 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
402 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
406 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
409 where <arch> is one of the following:
410 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
412 * detailed rules for /usr/local
416 * editor/pager policy
422 * don't install shared libraries as executable
424 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
426 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
428 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
433 * "Standard for Console Messages"
435 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
437 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
439 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
441 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
445 * No hard links in source packages
447 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
449 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
453 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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