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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 * 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 * Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
58 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
59 the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
60 behavior of the init system in Debian. [9.3]
61 * The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
62 start the daemon again if it's already running. [9.3.2]
63 * /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
64 arguments and supports assignment. [10.4]
65 * User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
66 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail. [11.6]
70 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
71 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
72 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
73 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
74 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
75 else is necessary. [4.9]
76 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
77 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
78 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
79 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
80 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
81 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
82 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
83 * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
84 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
86 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
87 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
88 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
89 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
90 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
91 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
93 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
94 * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
95 a version number. [5.6.12]
96 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
97 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
98 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
99 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
100 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
101 * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
102 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
103 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
104 common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
105 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
106 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
108 * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
109 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete. [11.8.6]
110 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
111 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
112 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
113 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
114 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
115 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
117 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
118 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
119 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
120 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
122 * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
126 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
127 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
128 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
129 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
130 logical operators. [10.4]
131 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
132 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
134 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
135 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
136 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
137 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
138 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
139 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
140 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
141 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
142 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
143 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
144 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
146 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
147 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
148 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
149 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
150 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
154 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
155 should to a must) [6.1]
159 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
163 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
164 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
165 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
166 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
167 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
168 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
169 of the process. [10.2]
170 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
171 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
172 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
176 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
177 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
178 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
179 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
180 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
181 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
182 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
183 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
185 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
186 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
187 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
188 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
189 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
190 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
191 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
192 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
193 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
195 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
196 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
197 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
198 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
199 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
200 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
201 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
205 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
206 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
207 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
208 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
209 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
210 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
214 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
215 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
219 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
220 the minor version number:
221 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
222 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
223 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
224 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
225 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
226 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
227 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
228 deb-building tool-chain.
229 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
230 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
231 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
232 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
233 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
234 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
235 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
236 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
237 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
238 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
239 sections about changelog files.
240 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
242 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
243 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
244 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
245 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
250 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
251 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
252 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
253 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
254 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
258 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
259 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
260 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
261 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
262 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
263 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
264 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
265 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
266 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
267 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
271 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
272 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
273 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
274 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
275 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
276 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
277 clean target is called. [7.6]
278 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
279 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
281 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
282 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
283 are still a bug. [12.1]
287 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
288 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
289 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
291 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
292 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
293 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
294 they add themselves as an alternative for
295 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
296 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
297 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
298 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
299 environment variable. [10.1]
300 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
301 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
302 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
303 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
304 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
305 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
306 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
307 build rules, please see below]
311 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
312 standard packages [2.5]
313 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
314 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
315 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
316 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
317 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
318 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
319 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
320 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
321 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
322 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
326 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
327 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
328 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
329 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
330 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
331 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
332 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
333 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
334 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
335 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
336 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
338 - X Windows related things:
339 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
341 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
342 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
343 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
344 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
345 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
346 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
347 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
348 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
352 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
353 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
354 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
356 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
357 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
362 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
363 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
364 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
365 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
366 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
371 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
372 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
376 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
377 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
381 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
382 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
386 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
387 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
388 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
389 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
390 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
391 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
392 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
393 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
398 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
399 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
400 and the other without [11.8.1]
404 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
405 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
406 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
407 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
408 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
409 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
410 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
411 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
412 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
414 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
415 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
416 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
417 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
418 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
419 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
420 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
421 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
422 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
423 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
424 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
425 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
430 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
431 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
435 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
436 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
437 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
438 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
439 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
440 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
441 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
442 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
443 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
444 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
445 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
446 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
447 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
448 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
449 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
450 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
452 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
453 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
454 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
455 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
457 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
458 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
459 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
460 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
465 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
466 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
467 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
471 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
472 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
474 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
475 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
476 - The location of the GPL has changed to
477 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
478 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
479 other major licenses [12.6]
480 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
481 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
482 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
483 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
485 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
486 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
487 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
488 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
491 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
497 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
498 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
499 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
500 Section 5 and Section 6.
501 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
502 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
503 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
504 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
505 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
507 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
508 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
509 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
510 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
511 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
512 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
513 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
514 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
515 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
516 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
517 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
523 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
524 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
525 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
526 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
528 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
529 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
530 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
533 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
534 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
535 installs shared libraries
536 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
540 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
541 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
542 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
544 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
545 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
548 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
549 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
550 file extension as the referenced file
552 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
553 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
555 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
556 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
557 start, stop, restart, force-reload
558 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
561 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
562 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
563 be installed into /etc/cron.d
565 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
566 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
567 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
568 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
571 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
572 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
575 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
576 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
577 reasonable default configuration
579 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
580 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
581 by all news servers and clients
583 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
584 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
585 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
586 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
587 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
589 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
590 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
593 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
595 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
596 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
598 * updated section about `Configuration files':
599 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
601 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
605 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
608 where <arch> is one of the following:
609 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
611 * detailed rules for /usr/local
615 * editor/pager policy
621 * don't install shared libraries as executable
623 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
625 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
627 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
632 * "Standard for Console Messages"
634 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
636 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
638 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
640 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
644 * No hard links in source packages
646 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
648 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
652 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
660 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
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