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 </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> Version 3.9.1.0
44 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
45 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
49 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
50 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
51 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
54 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
55 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
56 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
59 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
60 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
61 architecture-independent.
64 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
65 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
66 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
69 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
70 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
71 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
72 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
75 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
78 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
79 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
80 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
83 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
84 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
87 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
88 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
89 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
90 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
91 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
92 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
93 their <file>.la</file> files.
96 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
97 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
98 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
99 thread-safe if the library supports this.
102 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
103 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
104 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
105 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
106 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
109 <item>Recommend <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
112 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
113 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
114 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
115 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
116 for the corresponding manual page.
119 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
120 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
121 executables in those subdirectories.
124 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
125 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
130 <sect> Version 3.9.0.0
136 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
137 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
138 Date control field is now precisely specified.
141 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
142 particular field name.
144 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
145 <item>Document and recommend the <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
146 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields in <file>*.dsc</file>
147 and <file>*.changes</file> files.
149 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
150 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
151 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
152 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
153 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
154 for <file>.changes</file> files.
157 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
161 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
164 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
165 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
166 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
167 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
171 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
172 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
173 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
174 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
175 question, but should avoid this if possible.
177 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
178 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
179 files between packages.
182 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
183 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
184 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
187 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
188 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
191 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
192 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
193 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
194 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
197 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
199 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
200 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
201 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
204 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
205 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
206 It should instead be included directly
207 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
208 common-licenses for the time being.
211 <item>Add <tt>SETTITLE</tt> (which has been supported for some time).
212 Like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a template instead of a string to allow
216 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
217 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
218 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
219 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
220 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
223 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
224 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
225 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
229 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
236 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
237 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
238 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
241 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
242 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
245 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
246 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
250 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
256 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
257 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
260 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
261 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
262 may be used in different versions of the field.
265 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
266 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
269 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
272 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
273 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
274 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
275 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
278 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
279 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
280 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
283 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
284 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
287 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
288 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
289 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
293 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
294 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
295 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
296 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
297 support partial upgrades.
300 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
301 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
305 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
312 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
313 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
314 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
315 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
319 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
320 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
321 back on other methods.
324 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
328 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
329 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
332 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
333 <file>/var/mail</file>.
336 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
340 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
341 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
345 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
352 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
353 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
354 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
357 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
360 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
364 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
365 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
368 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
369 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
372 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
375 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
376 preceding whitespace.
379 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
380 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
381 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
382 behavior of the init system in Debian.
385 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
386 start the daemon again if it's already running.
389 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
390 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
391 subdirectories dynamically.
394 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
395 variable arguments and supports assignment.
398 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
399 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
403 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
410 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
411 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
412 system is now defined by priority.
414 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
415 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
417 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
418 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
419 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
420 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
421 unknown flags be ignored.
423 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
424 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
425 processes if the package supports it
427 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
428 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
431 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
432 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
433 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
434 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
435 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
436 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
439 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
441 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
444 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
445 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
446 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
447 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
448 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
449 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
451 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
452 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
453 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
456 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
457 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
460 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
461 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
464 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
465 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
466 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
467 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
468 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
469 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
472 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
473 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
475 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
476 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
479 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
482 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
489 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
490 anything, even the end of a part.
492 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
493 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
496 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
497 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
499 <tag>menu policy</tag>
500 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
501 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
502 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
503 sections would be more appropriate.
505 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
508 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
509 critical, or emergency.
511 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
512 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
513 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
516 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
517 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
518 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
520 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
521 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
524 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
530 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
531 should to a must)</item>
534 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
540 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
543 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
550 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
551 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
552 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
553 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
554 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
555 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
558 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
559 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
560 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
563 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
570 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
571 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
572 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
574 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
575 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
577 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
578 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
579 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
580 etc. may be of interest.
581 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
582 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
583 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
584 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
585 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
586 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
587 as well, to prepare for future changes.
589 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
590 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
591 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
594 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
595 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
597 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
598 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
599 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
600 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
604 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
611 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
614 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
615 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
616 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
619 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
620 allow packages to share image files with the web server
624 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
631 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
632 user prompts are now deprecated.
642 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
643 the minor version number:
645 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
646 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
647 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
648 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
649 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
650 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
651 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
652 deb-building tool-chain.
654 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
655 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
656 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
657 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
659 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
660 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
661 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
662 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
663 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
664 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
665 sections about changelog files.
666 <tag>menu policy</tag>
667 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
670 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
672 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
673 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
675 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
679 <sect> Version 3.5.10
686 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
687 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
690 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
691 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
694 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
701 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
702 full details of the long description format.
704 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
705 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
706 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
708 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
709 the init script should start the service.
711 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
712 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
713 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
716 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
723 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
724 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
725 documented in the changelog file.
727 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
728 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
730 <tag>menu policy</tag>
731 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
732 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
733 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
735 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
736 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
740 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
747 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
748 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
750 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
753 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
754 special Tasks: field in the control file.
756 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
757 they add themselves as an alternative for
758 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
760 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
761 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
762 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
763 environment variable.
765 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
766 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
767 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
768 review the new rules.
770 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
771 scripts. Long rationale.
775 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
776 rules, please see below
779 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
786 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
789 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
790 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
792 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
793 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
795 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
796 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
797 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
798 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
800 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
801 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
804 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
811 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
812 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
813 symlinks or .so pages to do this
816 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
817 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
818 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
821 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
822 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
825 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
826 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
829 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
832 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
835 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
839 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
841 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
842 fonts for the X Window System
845 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
848 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
849 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
852 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
853 OSF/Motif-linked ones
858 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
859 <p> Released Apr 2001.
863 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
864 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
865 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
868 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
869 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
870 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
875 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
876 <p> Released Apr 2001
880 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
881 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
884 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
885 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
886 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
887 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
891 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
893 <p> Released Feb 2001.
897 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
898 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
899 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
903 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
905 <p> Released Feb 2001.
909 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
910 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
914 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
916 <p> Released Jan 2001.
920 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
921 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
925 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
927 <p> Released Jan 2001.
931 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
932 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
933 <file>/etc/default/</file>
936 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
937 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
938 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
939 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
942 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
947 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
953 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
954 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
955 and the other without
959 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
965 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
966 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
967 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
970 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
971 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
972 should always be generated for the upstream changes
975 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
976 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
979 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
983 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
985 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
987 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
988 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
989 calculation guidelines)
992 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
994 <item>X application defaults </item>
998 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1002 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1004 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1005 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1010 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
1012 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1016 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1017 etc. Should not affect many packages
1021 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
1023 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1027 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1028 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1032 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1034 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1035 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1036 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1039 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1040 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1041 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1042 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1046 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1047 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1048 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1049 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1052 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1053 <file>/var/lib</file>
1055 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1056 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1058 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1061 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1062 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1066 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1067 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1068 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1071 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1076 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
1078 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1082 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1083 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1084 files must go in the run-time library package
1088 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
1090 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1094 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1095 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1099 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1100 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1103 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1104 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1105 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1106 other major licenses
1109 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1110 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1113 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1116 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1119 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1120 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1121 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1124 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1125 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1126 installed setgid utmp
1130 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1133 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
1135 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1139 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1141 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1142 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1143 Section 5 and Section 6.
1145 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1146 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1147 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1148 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1149 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1153 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1154 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1155 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1156 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1158 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1159 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1161 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1162 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1164 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1165 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1167 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1172 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1174 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1176 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1178 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1179 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1180 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1181 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1184 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1185 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1186 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1190 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1192 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1193 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1194 installs shared libraries
1195 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1199 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1201 <p> Released Jan 1998
1204 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1206 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1207 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1209 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1210 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1214 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1215 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1216 file extension as the referenced file
1219 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1220 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1221 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1224 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1226 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1227 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1228 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1232 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1233 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1234 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1237 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1238 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1239 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1240 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1244 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1245 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1249 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1250 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1251 reasonable default configuration
1254 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1255 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1256 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1259 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1261 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1262 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1264 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1265 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1269 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1270 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1275 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1277 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1280 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1281 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1282 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1285 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1286 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1289 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1292 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1294 <p> Released July 1997.
1297 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1300 where <arch> is one of the following:
1301 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1304 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1306 <item>user ID's</item>
1308 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1310 <item>cron jobs</item>
1312 <item>device files</item>
1314 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1316 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1319 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1321 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1324 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1327 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1329 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1331 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1333 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1337 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1339 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1342 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1345 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1347 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1350 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1352 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1353 without consultation </item>
1355 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1358 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1360 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1363 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>