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.
62 + *4.9* : Add DEB\_*\_ARCH\_CPU and DEB\_*\_ARCH\_OS variables and
63 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
64 + *5.6.8*: Source package Architecture fields may contain /all/ in
65 combination with other architectures. Clarify when /all/ and /any/
66 may be used in different versions of the field.
67 + *5.6.14* : The Debian archive software does not support uploading
68 to multiple distributions with one \*.changes file.
69 + *5.6.19* : The Binary field may span multiple lines.
70 + *10.2* : Remove the permission for shared library packages to
71 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify ld.so.conf.
72 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
73 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
74 + *11.8.7* : Clarify installation directories for X programs and
75 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
76 into /usr/include/X11 and /usr/lib/X11.
77 + *12.1* : Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
78 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
79 + *12.1* : Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
80 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
81 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
83 + *12.2* : install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
84 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
85 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
86 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
87 support partial upgrades.
88 + *perl* : The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
89 Depend and Build-Depend on perl >= 5.6.0-16 has been removed.
95 + *2.4*: The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
96 [[http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html]]
97 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
99 + *3.9.1*: All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
100 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
101 back on other methods.
102 + *5.6.1*: The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
104 + *9.1*: Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
105 FHS permitting /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
106 + *9.1.3*: Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
108 + *11.8.5*: Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
110 + *12.5*: The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
111 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
117 + *3.8*: Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
118 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
119 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
120 + *4.4*: Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
121 + *4.4*: Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
123 + *4.4.1*: Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
124 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
125 + *4.9.1*: New nocheck option for DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
126 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
127 + *5.1*: All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
128 + *5.2*: debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
129 preceding whitespace.
130 + *9.3*: Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
131 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
132 the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
133 behavior of the init system in Debian.
134 + *9.3.2*: The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
135 start the daemon again if it's already running.
136 + *9.3.2*: /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
137 init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
139 + *10.4*: /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
140 arguments and supports assignment.
141 + *11.6*: User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
142 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
148 + *2.4, 3.7*: The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
149 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
150 system is now defined by priority.
151 + *4.9*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
152 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
154 + *4.9.1, 10.1*: Standardized the format of DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
155 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
156 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
157 unknown flags be ignored.
158 + *4.9.1*: Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS tags,
159 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
160 processes if the package supports it
161 + *4.13*: Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
162 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
164 + *4.14*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
165 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
166 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
167 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
168 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
169 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
171 + *5.6.3*: The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
172 + *5.6.12*: An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
174 + *5.6.23*: New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
175 + *6.5, 6.6, 7*: The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
176 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
177 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
178 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
179 + *8.1, 8.2*: Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
180 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
181 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
183 + *9.5*: Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
184 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
186 + *11.8.6*: Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
187 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete.
188 + *12.1*: Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
189 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
190 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
191 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
192 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
193 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
195 + *12.5*: The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
196 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
197 + *12.5*: Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
198 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
200 + *debconf*: Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
206 + *5.6.12*: Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
207 anything, even the end of a part.
208 + *10.4*: Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
209 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
211 + *8.5*: The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
212 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
214 + *menu policy*: Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
215 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
216 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
217 sections would be more appropriate.
218 + *5.6.1*: The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
220 + *5.6.17*: The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
221 critical, or emergency.
222 + *8.6*: The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
223 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
224 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
226 + *3.9.1*: Packages following the Debian Configuration management
227 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
228 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
229 + *12.5*: GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
230 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
236 + *6.1*: Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
243 + *11.5*: Revert the cgi-lib change.
249 + *10.2*: It is now possible to create shared libraries without
250 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
251 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
252 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
253 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
254 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
256 + *11.8.7*: Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
257 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
258 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
264 + *11.5*: Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
265 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
266 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
267 + *11.5*: Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
268 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib.
269 + *9.1.1*: The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
270 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
271 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
273 + *5.1, 5.6.3*: All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
274 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
275 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
276 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
277 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
278 as well, to prepare for future changes.
279 + *10.4*: When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
280 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
281 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
283 + *9.3.3.2*: packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
284 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
286 + *11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc*: We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have
287 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
288 live in /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
295 + Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
296 + *8.1*: Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
297 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
298 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
299 + *11.5*: It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
300 allow packages to share image files with the web server
306 + *3.10.1*: Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
307 user prompts are now deprecated.
313 + Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
314 the minor version number:
315 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
316 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
317 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
318 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
319 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
320 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
321 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
322 deb-building tool-chain.
323 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
324 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
325 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
326 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
327 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
328 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
329 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
330 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
331 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
332 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
333 sections about changelog files.
334 + *menu policy*: Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
336 + *C.2.2*: Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
337 + *10.2*: shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
338 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
339 + *7.6*: build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
346 + *11.8.3*: packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
347 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
349 + *11.8.4*: Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
350 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
356 + *3.4.2*: The section describing the Description: package field once again has
357 full details of the long description format.
358 + *4.2*: Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
359 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
360 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
361 + *9.3.2*: When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
362 the init script should start the service.
363 + *12.6*: If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
364 example files can be installed into =/usr/share/doc/package= (rather
365 than =/usr/share/doc/package/examples=).
371 + *12.7*: It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
372 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
373 documented in the changelog file.
374 + *7.6*: =Build-Depends=, =Build-Conflicts=, =Build-Depends-Indep=,
375 and =Build-Conflicts-Indep= must also be satisfied when the clean
377 + *menu policy*: A new Apps/Science menu section is available
378 + *debconf policy*: debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
379 + *12.1*: It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
380 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
387 + Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
388 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
389 + *2.2.4*: cryptographic software may now be included in the main
391 + *3.9*: task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
392 special Tasks: field in the control file.
393 + *11.8.4*: window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
394 they add themselves as an alternative for
395 /usr/bin/x-window-manager
396 + *10.1*: The default compilation options have now changed, one should
397 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
398 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS
399 environment variable.
400 + *7.6, 4.8*: Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
401 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
402 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
403 review the new rules.
404 + *8*: Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
405 scripts. Long rationale.
407 *Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build rules, please see below*
413 + *2.5*: Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
415 + *11.5*: Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
416 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously
417 + *12.3*: Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
418 a ``serious'' policy violation.
419 + *11.5*: For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
420 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
421 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
422 ask permission to expose that information during the install.
423 + *7*: There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
424 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
430 + *12.1*: Manpages should not rely on header information to have
431 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
432 symlinks or .so pages to do this
433 + *Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
434 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
435 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story*
436 + Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
437 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
438 + Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
439 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
440 + *10.2*: Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
442 + X Windows related things:
443 * *11.8.1*: Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
445 * *11.8.3*: Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved
446 * *11.8.5*: X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
447 fonts for the X Window System
448 * *11.8.6*: Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/
449 * *11.8.7*: X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
450 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
451 * *11.8.8*: OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
452 OSF/Motif-linked ones
458 + *11.6*: The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
459 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
460 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
462 + *11.9; perl-policy*: The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
463 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
470 + *7.1*: Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
471 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
472 + *10.7.3*: Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
473 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
474 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
481 + *11.8.6*: X app-defaults directory has moved from
482 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults
488 + *8.1*: dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
489 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
495 + *11.8.5*: Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
496 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
502 + Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
503 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
504 /etc/default/; see *9.3.2] for details
505 + *12.3*: Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
506 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
507 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
508 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/
509 + Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
516 + *11.8.1*: A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
517 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
518 and the other without
524 + *10.1*: By default executables should not be built with the debugging
525 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
526 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
527 + *12.8*: Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
528 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
529 should always be generated for the upstream changes
530 + Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
531 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
532 + Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
534 - *11.8.2*: X server (virtual package xserver)
535 - *11.8.3*: X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
536 - *11.8.4*: X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
537 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
538 calculation guidelines)
539 - *12.8.5*: X fonts (this section has been written from scratch)
540 - *11.8.6*: X application defaults
541 + *11.8.7*: Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
542 has been clarified; see
543 + *11.7.3*: No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles
544 + *8*: Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
545 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
552 + *7.1*: Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
553 etc. Should not affect many packages
559 + /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
560 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
561 and prerm scripts. Details are in *defunct*
562 + *7.1, 7.6*: Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.)
563 + *9.3.4*: /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
564 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
566 + *9.3.3*: update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
567 /etc/rc?.d/*SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
568 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
569 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
571 + *12.7*: Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
572 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
573 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself
574 + *9.1.1*: Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
576 + *9.7; mime-policy*: Added MIME sub-policy document
577 + *12.4*: VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
578 + *11.6*: Modified liblockfile description, which affects
579 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
581 + *12.7*: If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
582 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
583 using lynx -dump -nolist.)
584 + *3.2.1*: Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
591 + *10.2*: Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
592 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
593 files must go in the run-time library package
599 + *9.1*: Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
600 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
602 + *4.1*: Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
603 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
604 + *12.6*: The location of the GPL has changed to
605 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
606 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
608 + *10.2*: Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
609 include the .la files in the -dev packages
610 + *10.8*: Use logrotate to rotate log files
611 + *now 11.8*: section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
613 + *9.6; menu-policy*: There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
614 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
615 + *11.3*: Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
616 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp
619 *Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date*
627 + Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
628 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
629 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
630 Section 5 and Section 6.
631 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
632 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
633 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
634 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
635 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
637 + Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
638 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
639 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
640 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
641 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
642 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
643 + Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
644 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
645 + Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
646 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
647 + Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
655 + Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
656 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
657 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
658 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
660 + Updated section 4.9 Games:
661 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
662 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
664 **** Packaging Manual:
665 + Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
666 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
667 installs shared libraries
668 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
674 + Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
675 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
676 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
678 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
679 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
682 + Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
683 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
684 file extension as the referenced file
686 + Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
687 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
689 + Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in /etc/init.d:
690 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
691 start, stop, restart, force-reload
692 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
695 + Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
696 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
697 be installed into /etc/cron.d
699 + Updated section 3.7 Menus:
700 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
701 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
702 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
705 + New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
706 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
709 + New section 3.9 Environment variables:
710 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
711 reasonable default configuration
713 + New section 4.6 News system configuration:
714 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
715 by all news servers and clients
717 + Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
718 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
719 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
720 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
721 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
723 + Updated section 4.9 Games:
724 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
731 + new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
732 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
734 + updated section about `Configuration files':
735 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
737 + MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
743 + added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
746 where <arch> is one of the following:
747 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
749 + detailed rules for /usr/local
753 + editor/pager policy
759 + don't install shared libraries as executable
761 + app-defaults files may not be conffiles
763 *** 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
767 + two programs with different functionality must not have the
772 + "Standard for Console Messages"
774 + Libraries should be compiled with `-D\_REENTRANT'
776 + Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
778 *** 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
782 + Some changes WRT shared libraries
788 + No hard links in source packages
790 + Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
792 + Shared libraries must be installed stripped
798 + Upstream changelog must be installed too