1 <!doctype debiandoc system>
5 <title> Policy checklist for upgrading your packages </title>
6 <author> Bill Allombert <email/ballombe@debian.org/ </author>
7 <author> Josip Rodin </author>
8 <author> Julian Gilbey </author>
9 <author> Russ Allbery <email/rra@debian.org/ </author>
10 <author> Manoj Srivastava <email/srivasta@debian.org/
12 <chapt> About the checklist
14 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
15 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
16 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
17 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
18 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
19 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
20 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
21 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
22 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
23 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
24 used below refer to the current version.
26 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
27 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
28 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
29 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
30 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
31 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
32 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
33 picking your way through this list.
37 <sect id="3.9.7.0"> Version 3.9.7.0
44 <sect id="3.9.6.0"> Version 3.9.6.0
47 Released September, 2014.
51 <item> The FHS is relaxed to allow a subdirectory of <file>/usr/lib</file>
52 to hold a mixture of architecture-independent and architecture-dependent
53 files, though directories entirely composed of architecture-independent files
54 should be located in <file>/usr/share</file>.
57 <item>The FHS requirement for <file>/usr/local/lib64</file> to exist
58 if <file>/lib64</file> or <file>/usr/lib64</file> exists is removed.
61 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch include files,
62 permitting header files to instead be installed to
63 <file>/usr/include/triplet</file>.
66 <item> Binaries must not be statically linked with the GNU C library,
67 see policy for exceptions.
70 <item> It is clarified that signature appearing in debian/changelog should be
71 the details of the person who prepared this release of the package.
74 <item> The default web document root is now <file>/var/www/html</file>
77 <item><tt>java1-runtime</tt> and <tt>java2-runtime</tt> are removed,
78 <tt>javaN-runtime</tt> and <tt>javaN-runtime-headless</tt> are added
79 for all N between 5 and 9.
82 <item>Added <tt>httpd-wsgi</tt> for WSGI capable HTTP servers.
85 <item> Perl packages should use the <tt>%Config</tt> hash to locate module
86 paths instead of hardcoding paths in <tt>@INC</tt>.
89 <item> Perl binary modules and any modules installed into
90 <tt>$Config{vendorarch}</tt> must depend on the relevant
91 <package>perlapi-*</package> package.
92 </item> </taglist></p>
94 <sect id="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
97 Released October, 2013.
101 <item>Control data fields must not start with the hyphen character
102 (<tt>-</tt>), to avoid potential confusions when parsing clearsigned control
103 data files that were not properly unescaped.
105 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
106 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
107 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
109 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
110 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
111 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
113 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
114 source control files.
117 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
118 package control files.
121 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
122 source control files.
125 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
128 <item>Packages should remove all obsolete configuration files without
129 local changes during upgrades. The <prgn>dpkg-maintscript-helper</prgn>
130 tool, available from the <package>dpkg</package> package since
131 <em>Wheezy</em>, can help with this.
134 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
135 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
136 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
139 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
140 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
143 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
144 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
145 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
148 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
151 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
154 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
157 Released August, 2012.
161 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
164 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
165 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
168 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
169 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
170 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
173 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
176 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
177 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
178 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
179 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
182 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
183 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
184 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
185 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
186 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
187 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
190 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
191 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
192 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
195 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
196 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
198 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
199 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
202 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
206 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
209 Released February, 2012.
213 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
214 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
217 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
218 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
219 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
222 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
223 list of architectures must be non-empty.
226 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
227 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
228 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
229 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
230 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
231 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
232 should be stored in a temporary file system.
235 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
236 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
237 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
241 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
242 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
243 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
244 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
245 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
248 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
251 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
252 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
255 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
256 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
257 they have been removed.
260 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
261 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
262 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
264 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
265 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
266 file" specification is included.
269 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
270 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
274 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
275 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
278 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
279 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
283 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
286 Released April, 2011.
290 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
291 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
295 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
296 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
297 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
298 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
301 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
302 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
303 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
307 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
308 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
309 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
310 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
314 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
317 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
318 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
319 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
320 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
324 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
325 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
326 dependencies are now a should not.
329 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
330 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
331 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
332 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
333 actions if their dependencies are not available.
336 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
337 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
340 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
341 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
342 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
343 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
344 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
347 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
348 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
349 POSIX-required interface.
353 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
360 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
361 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
365 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
366 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
367 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
370 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
371 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
372 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
375 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
376 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
377 architecture-independent.
380 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
381 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
382 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
385 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
386 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
387 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
388 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
391 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
394 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
395 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
396 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
399 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
400 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
403 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
404 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
405 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
406 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
407 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
408 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
409 their <file>.la</file> files.
412 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
413 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
414 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
415 thread-safe if the library supports this.
418 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
419 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
420 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
421 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
422 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
425 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
426 logrotate rules is now recommended.
429 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
430 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
432 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
433 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
434 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
435 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
436 for the corresponding manual page.
439 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
440 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
441 executables in those subdirectories.
444 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
445 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
450 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
456 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
457 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
458 Date control field is now precisely specified.
461 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
462 particular field name.
464 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
465 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
466 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
467 documented and recommended.
469 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
470 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
471 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
472 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
473 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
474 for <file>.changes</file> files.
477 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
481 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
484 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
485 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
486 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
487 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
491 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
492 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
493 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
494 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
495 question, but should avoid this if possible.
497 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
498 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
499 files between packages.
502 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
503 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
504 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
507 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
508 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
511 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
512 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
513 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
514 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
517 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
519 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
520 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
521 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
524 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
525 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
526 It should instead be included directly
527 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
528 common-licenses for the time being.
531 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
532 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
533 template instead of a string to allow translation.
536 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
537 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
538 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
539 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
540 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
543 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
544 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
545 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
549 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
556 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
557 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
558 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
561 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
562 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
565 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
566 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
570 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
576 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
577 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
580 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
581 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
582 may be used in different versions of the field.
585 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
586 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
589 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
592 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
593 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
594 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
595 using them should be built with RPATH.
598 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
599 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
600 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
601 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
604 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
605 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
608 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
609 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
610 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
614 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
615 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
616 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
617 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
618 support partial upgrades.
621 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
622 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
626 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
633 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
634 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
635 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
636 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
640 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
641 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
642 back on other methods.
645 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
649 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
650 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
653 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
654 <file>/var/mail</file>.
657 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
661 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
662 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
666 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
673 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
674 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
675 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
678 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
681 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
685 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
686 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
689 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
690 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
693 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
696 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
697 with no preceding whitespace.
700 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
701 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
702 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
703 behavior of the init system in Debian.
706 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
707 start the daemon again if it's already running.
710 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
711 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
712 subdirectories dynamically.
715 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
716 variable arguments and supports assignment.
719 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
720 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
724 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
731 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
732 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
733 system is now defined by priority.
735 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
736 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
738 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
739 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
740 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
741 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
742 unknown flags be ignored.
744 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
745 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
746 processes if the package supports it
748 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
749 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
752 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
753 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
754 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
755 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
756 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
757 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
760 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
762 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
765 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
766 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
767 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
768 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
769 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
770 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
772 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
773 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
774 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
777 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
778 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
781 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
782 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
785 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
786 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
787 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
788 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
789 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
790 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
793 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
794 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
796 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
797 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
800 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
803 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
810 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
811 anything, even the end of a part.
813 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
814 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
817 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
818 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
820 <tag>menu policy</tag>
821 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
822 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
823 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
824 sections would be more appropriate.
826 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
829 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
830 critical, or emergency.
832 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
833 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
834 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
837 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
838 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
839 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
841 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
842 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
845 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
851 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
852 should to a must)</item>
855 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
861 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
864 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
871 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
872 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
873 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
874 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
875 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
876 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
879 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
880 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
881 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
884 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
891 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
892 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
893 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
895 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
896 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
898 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
899 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
900 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
901 etc. may be of interest.
902 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
903 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
904 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
905 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
906 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
907 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
908 as well, to prepare for future changes.
910 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
911 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
912 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
915 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
916 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
918 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
919 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
920 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
921 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
925 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
932 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
935 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
936 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
937 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
940 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
941 allow packages to share image files with the web server
945 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
952 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
953 user prompts are now deprecated.
956 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
963 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
964 the minor version number:
966 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
967 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
968 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
969 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
970 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
971 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
972 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
973 deb-building tool-chain.
975 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
976 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
977 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
978 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
980 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
981 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
982 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
983 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
984 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
985 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
986 sections about changelog files.
987 <tag>menu policy</tag>
988 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
991 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
993 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
994 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
996 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
1000 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
1007 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
1008 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
1011 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
1012 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
1015 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
1022 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
1023 full details of the long description format.
1025 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
1026 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
1027 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
1029 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
1030 the init script should start the service.
1032 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
1033 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
1034 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
1037 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
1044 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
1045 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
1046 documented in the changelog file.
1048 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
1049 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
1051 <tag>menu policy</tag>
1052 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
1053 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
1054 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
1056 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
1057 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
1061 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1068 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1069 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1071 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1074 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1075 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1077 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1078 they add themselves as an alternative for
1079 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1081 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1082 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1083 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1084 environment variable.
1086 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1087 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1088 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1089 review the new rules.
1091 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1092 scripts. Long rationale.
1096 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1097 rules, please see below
1100 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1107 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1110 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1111 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1113 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1114 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1116 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1117 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1118 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1119 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1121 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1122 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1125 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1132 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1133 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1134 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1137 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1138 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1139 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1142 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1143 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1146 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1147 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1150 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1153 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1156 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1160 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1162 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1163 fonts for the X Window System
1166 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1169 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1170 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1173 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1174 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1179 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1180 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1184 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1185 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1186 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1188 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1189 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1190 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1195 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1196 <p> Released Apr 2001
1200 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1201 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1204 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1205 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1206 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1207 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1211 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1213 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1217 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1218 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1219 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1223 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1225 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1229 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1230 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1234 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1236 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1240 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1241 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1245 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1247 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1251 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1252 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1253 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1256 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1257 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1258 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1259 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1262 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1267 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1269 <p> Released Aug 00.
1273 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1274 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1275 and the other without
1279 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1281 <p> Released Aug 00.
1285 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1286 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1287 package with debugging information optionally.
1290 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1291 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1292 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1295 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1296 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1299 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1303 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1305 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1307 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1308 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1309 calculation guidelines)
1312 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1314 <item>X application defaults </item>
1318 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1322 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1324 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1325 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1330 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1332 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1336 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1337 etc. Should not affect many packages
1341 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1343 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1347 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1348 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1352 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1354 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1355 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1356 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1359 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1360 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1361 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1362 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1366 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1367 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1368 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1369 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1372 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1373 <file>/var/lib</file>
1375 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1376 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1378 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1381 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1382 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1386 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1387 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1388 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1391 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1396 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1398 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1402 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1403 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1404 files must go in the run-time library package
1408 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1410 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1414 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1415 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1419 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1420 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1423 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1424 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1425 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1426 other major licenses
1429 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1430 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1433 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1436 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1439 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1440 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1441 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1444 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1445 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1446 installed setgid utmp
1450 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1453 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1455 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1459 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1461 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1462 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1463 Section 5 and Section 6.
1465 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1466 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1467 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1468 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1469 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1473 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1474 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1475 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1476 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1478 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1479 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1481 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1482 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1484 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1485 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1487 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1492 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1494 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1496 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1498 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1499 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1500 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1501 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1504 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1505 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1506 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1510 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1512 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1513 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1514 installs shared libraries
1515 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1519 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1521 <p> Released Jan 1998
1524 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1526 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1527 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1529 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1530 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1534 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1535 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1536 file extension as the referenced file
1539 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1540 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1541 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1544 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1546 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1547 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1548 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1552 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1553 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1554 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1557 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1558 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1559 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1560 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1564 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1565 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1569 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1570 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1571 reasonable default configuration
1574 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1575 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1576 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1579 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1581 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1582 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1584 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1585 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1589 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1590 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1595 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1597 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1600 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1601 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1602 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1605 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1606 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1609 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1612 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1614 <p> Released July 1997.
1617 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1620 where <arch> is one of the following:
1621 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1624 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1626 <item>user ID's</item>
1628 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1630 <item>cron jobs</item>
1632 <item>device files</item>
1634 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1636 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1639 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1641 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1644 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1647 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1649 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1651 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1653 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1657 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1659 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1662 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1665 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1667 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1670 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1672 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1673 without consultation </item>
1675 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1678 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1680 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1683 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>