1 -*- mode: org; fill-column: 78 -*-
3 #+STARTUP: lognotedone lognotestate
5 #+TITLE: Policy checklist for upgrading your packages
6 #+AUTHOR: Bill Allombert, Josip Rodin, Julian Gilbey, Russ Allbery, and Manoj Srivastava
7 #+EMAIL: srivasta@debian.org
8 #+OPTIONS: H:3 num:nil toc:nil \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t TeX:t LaTeX:nil skip:t d:nil tags:not-in-toc
9 #+LINK_HOME: http://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Policy
10 #+LINK_UP: http://www.debian.org/
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34 ** About the checklist
36 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
37 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
38 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
39 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
40 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
41 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
42 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
43 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
44 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
45 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
46 used below refer to the current version.
48 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
49 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
50 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
51 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
52 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
53 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
54 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
55 picking your way through this list.
67 + *10.6* : Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
68 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
78 + *4.9* : Add DEB\_*\_ARCH\_CPU and DEB\_*\_ARCH\_OS variables and
79 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
80 + *5.6.8*: Source package Architecture fields may contain /all/ in
81 combination with other architectures. Clarify when /all/ and /any/
82 may be used in different versions of the field.
83 + *5.6.14* : The Debian archive software does not support uploading
84 to multiple distributions with one \*.changes file.
85 + *5.6.19* : The Binary field may span multiple lines.
86 + *10.2* : Remove the permission for shared library packages to
87 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify ld.so.conf.
88 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
89 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
90 + *11.8.7* : Clarify installation directories for X programs and
91 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
92 into /usr/include/X11 and /usr/lib/X11.
93 + *12.1* : Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
94 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
95 + *12.1* : Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
96 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
97 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
99 + *12.2* : install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
100 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
101 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
102 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
103 support partial upgrades.
104 + *perl* : The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
105 Depend and Build-Depend on perl >= 5.6.0-16 has been removed.
115 + *2.4*: The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
116 [[http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html]]
117 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
119 + *3.9.1*: All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
120 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
121 back on other methods.
122 + *5.6.1*: The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
124 + *9.1*: Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
125 FHS permitting /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
126 + *9.1.3*: Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
128 + *11.8.5*: Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
130 + *12.5*: The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
131 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
141 + *3.8*: Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
142 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
143 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
144 + *4.4*: Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
145 + *4.4*: Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
147 + *4.4.1*: Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
148 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
149 + *4.9.1*: New nocheck option for DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
150 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
151 + *5.1*: All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
152 + *5.2*: debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
153 preceding whitespace.
154 + *9.3*: Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
155 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
156 the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
157 behavior of the init system in Debian.
158 + *9.3.2*: The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
159 start the daemon again if it's already running.
160 + *9.3.2*: /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
161 init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
163 + *10.4*: /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
164 arguments and supports assignment.
165 + *11.6*: User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
166 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
176 + *2.4, 3.7*: The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
177 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
178 system is now defined by priority.
179 + *4.9*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
180 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
182 + *4.9.1, 10.1*: Standardized the format of DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
183 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
184 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
185 unknown flags be ignored.
186 + *4.9.1*: Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS tags,
187 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
188 processes if the package supports it
189 + *4.13*: Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
190 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
192 + *4.14*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
193 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
194 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
195 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
196 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
197 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
199 + *5.6.3*: The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
200 + *5.6.12*: An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
202 + *5.6.23*: New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
203 + *6.5, 6.6, 7*: The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
204 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
205 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
206 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
207 + *8.1, 8.2*: Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
208 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
209 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
211 + *9.5*: Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
212 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
214 + *11.8.6*: Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
215 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete.
216 + *12.1*: Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
217 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
218 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
219 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
220 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
221 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
223 + *12.5*: The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
224 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
225 + *12.5*: Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
226 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
228 + *debconf*: Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
238 + *5.6.12*: Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
239 anything, even the end of a part.
240 + *10.4*: Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
241 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
243 + *8.5*: The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
244 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
246 + *menu policy*: Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
247 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
248 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
249 sections would be more appropriate.
250 + *5.6.1*: The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
252 + *5.6.17*: The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
253 critical, or emergency.
254 + *8.6*: The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
255 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
256 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
258 + *3.9.1*: Packages following the Debian Configuration management
259 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
260 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
261 + *12.5*: GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
262 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
272 + *6.1*: Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
283 + *11.5*: Revert the cgi-lib change.
293 + *10.2*: It is now possible to create shared libraries without
294 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
295 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
296 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
297 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
298 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
300 + *11.8.7*: Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
301 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
302 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
306 :CUSTOM_ID: v3.7.0.0.
312 + *11.5*: Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
313 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
314 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
315 + *11.5*: Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
316 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib.
317 + *9.1.1*: The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
318 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
319 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
321 + *5.1, 5.6.3*: All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
322 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
323 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
324 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
325 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
326 as well, to prepare for future changes.
327 + *10.4*: When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
328 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
329 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
331 + *9.3.3.2*: packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
332 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
334 + *11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc*: We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have
335 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
336 live in /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
347 + Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
348 + *8.1*: Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
349 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
350 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
351 + *11.5*: It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
352 allow packages to share image files with the web server
362 + *3.10.1*: Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
363 user prompts are now deprecated.
373 + Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
374 the minor version number:
375 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
376 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
377 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
378 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
379 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
380 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
381 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
382 deb-building tool-chain.
383 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
384 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
385 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
386 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
387 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
388 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
389 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
390 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
391 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
392 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
393 sections about changelog files.
394 + *menu policy*: Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
396 + *C.2.2*: Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
397 + *10.2*: shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
398 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
399 + *7.6*: build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
404 :CUSTOM_ID: v3.5.10.0
410 + *11.8.3*: packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
411 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
413 + *11.8.4*: Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
414 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
424 + *3.4.2*: The section describing the Description: package field once again has
425 full details of the long description format.
426 + *4.2*: Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
427 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
428 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
429 + *9.3.2*: When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
430 the init script should start the service.
431 + *12.6*: If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
432 example files can be installed into =/usr/share/doc/package= (rather
433 than =/usr/share/doc/package/examples=).
443 + *12.7*: It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
444 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
445 documented in the changelog file.
446 + *7.6*: =Build-Depends=, =Build-Conflicts=, =Build-Depends-Indep=,
447 and =Build-Conflicts-Indep= must also be satisfied when the clean
449 + *menu policy*: A new Apps/Science menu section is available
450 + *debconf policy*: debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
451 + *12.1*: It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
452 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
463 + Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
464 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
465 + *2.2.4*: cryptographic software may now be included in the main
467 + *3.9*: task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
468 special Tasks: field in the control file.
469 + *11.8.4*: window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
470 they add themselves as an alternative for
471 /usr/bin/x-window-manager
472 + *10.1*: The default compilation options have now changed, one should
473 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
474 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS
475 environment variable.
476 + *7.6, 4.8*: Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
477 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
478 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
479 review the new rules.
480 + *8*: Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
481 scripts. Long rationale.
483 *Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build rules, please see below*
493 + *2.5*: Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
495 + *11.5*: Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
496 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously
497 + *12.3*: Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
498 a ``serious'' policy violation.
499 + *11.5*: For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
500 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
501 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
502 ask permission to expose that information during the install.
503 + *7*: There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
504 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
514 + *12.1*: Manpages should not rely on header information to have
515 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
516 symlinks or .so pages to do this
517 + *Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
518 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
519 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story*
520 + Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
521 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
522 + Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
523 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
524 + *10.2*: Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
526 + X Windows related things:
527 * *11.8.1*: Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
529 * *11.8.3*: Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved
530 * *11.8.5*: X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
531 fonts for the X Window System
532 * *11.8.6*: Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/
533 * *11.8.7*: X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
534 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
535 * *11.8.8*: OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
536 OSF/Motif-linked ones
546 + *11.6*: The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
547 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
548 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
550 + *11.9; perl-policy*: The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
551 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
563 + *7.1*: Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
564 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
565 + *10.7.3*: Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
566 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
567 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
578 + *11.8.6*: X app-defaults directory has moved from
579 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults
589 + *8.1*: dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
590 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
600 + *11.8.5*: Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
601 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
611 + Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
612 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
613 /etc/default/; see *9.3.2] for details
614 + *12.3*: Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
615 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
616 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
617 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/
618 + Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
629 + *11.8.1*: A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
630 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
631 and the other without
641 + *10.1*: By default executables should not be built with the debugging
642 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
643 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
644 + *12.8*: Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
645 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
646 should always be generated for the upstream changes
647 + Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
648 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
649 + Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
651 - *11.8.2*: X server (virtual package xserver)
652 - *11.8.3*: X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
653 - *11.8.4*: X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
654 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
655 calculation guidelines)
656 - *12.8.5*: X fonts (this section has been written from scratch)
657 - *11.8.6*: X application defaults
658 + *11.8.7*: Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
659 has been clarified; see
660 + *11.7.3*: No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles
661 + *8*: Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
662 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
673 + *7.1*: Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
674 etc. Should not affect many packages
684 + /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
685 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
686 and prerm scripts. Details are in *defunct*
687 + *7.1, 7.6*: Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.)
688 + *9.3.4*: /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
689 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
691 + *9.3.3*: update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
692 /etc/rc?.d/*SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
693 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
694 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
696 + *12.7*: Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
697 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
698 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself
699 + *9.1.1*: Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
701 + *9.7; mime-policy*: Added MIME sub-policy document
702 + *12.4*: VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
703 + *11.6*: Modified liblockfile description, which affects
704 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
706 + *12.7*: If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
707 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
708 using lynx -dump -nolist.)
709 + *3.2.1*: Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
720 + *10.2*: Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
721 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
722 files must go in the run-time library package
732 + *9.1*: Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
733 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
735 + *4.1*: Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
736 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
737 + *12.6*: The location of the GPL has changed to
738 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
739 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
741 + *10.2*: Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
742 include the .la files in the -dev packages
743 + *10.8*: Use logrotate to rotate log files
744 + *now 11.8*: section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
746 + *9.6; menu-policy*: There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
747 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
748 + *11.3*: Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
749 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp
752 *Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date*
764 + Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
765 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
766 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
767 Section 5 and Section 6.
768 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
769 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
770 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
771 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
772 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
774 + Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
775 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
776 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
777 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
778 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
779 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
780 + Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
781 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
782 + Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
783 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
784 + Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
796 + Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
797 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
798 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
799 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
801 + Updated section 4.9 Games:
802 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
803 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
805 **** Packaging Manual:
806 + Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
807 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
808 installs shared libraries
809 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
819 + Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
820 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
821 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
823 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
824 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
827 + Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
828 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
829 file extension as the referenced file
831 + Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
832 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
834 + Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in /etc/init.d:
835 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
836 start, stop, restart, force-reload
837 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
840 + Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
841 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
842 be installed into /etc/cron.d
844 + Updated section 3.7 Menus:
845 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
846 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
847 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
850 + New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
851 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
854 + New section 3.9 Environment variables:
855 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
856 reasonable default configuration
858 + New section 4.6 News system configuration:
859 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
860 by all news servers and clients
862 + Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
863 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
864 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
865 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
866 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
868 + Updated section 4.9 Games:
869 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
880 + new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
881 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
883 + updated section about `Configuration files':
884 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
886 + MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
896 + added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
899 where <arch> is one of the following:
900 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
902 + detailed rules for /usr/local
906 + editor/pager policy
912 + don't install shared libraries as executable
914 + app-defaults files may not be conffiles
916 *** 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
924 + two programs with different functionality must not have the
929 + "Standard for Console Messages"
931 + Libraries should be compiled with `-D\_REENTRANT'
933 + Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
935 *** 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
943 + Some changes WRT shared libraries
953 + No hard links in source packages
955 + Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
957 + Shared libraries must be installed stripped
967 + Upstream changelog must be installed too
projects / debian / debian-policy.git / blob