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 3.8.5.0
43 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
44 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
45 Date control field is now precisely specified.
48 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
49 particular field name.
51 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
52 <item>Document and recommend the <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
53 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields in <file>*.dsc</file>
54 and <file>*.changes</file> files.
56 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
57 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
58 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
59 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
63 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
64 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
65 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
66 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
67 question, but should avoid this if possible.
70 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
72 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
73 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
74 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
77 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
78 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
79 It should instead be included directly
80 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
81 common-licenses for the time being.
84 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
85 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
86 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
87 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
88 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
91 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
92 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
93 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
97 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
104 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
105 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
106 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
109 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
110 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
113 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
114 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
118 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
124 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
125 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
128 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
129 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
130 may be used in different versions of the field.
133 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
134 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
137 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
140 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
141 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
142 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
143 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
146 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
147 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
148 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
151 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
152 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
155 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
156 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
157 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
161 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
162 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
163 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
164 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
165 support partial upgrades.
168 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
169 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
173 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
180 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
181 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
182 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
183 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
187 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
188 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
189 back on other methods.
192 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
196 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
197 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
200 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
201 <file>/var/mail</file>.
204 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
208 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
209 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
213 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
220 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
221 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
222 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
225 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
228 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
232 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
233 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
236 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
237 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
240 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
243 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
244 preceding whitespace.
247 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
248 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
249 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
250 behavior of the init system in Debian.
253 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
254 start the daemon again if it's already running.
257 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
258 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
259 subdirectories dynamically.
262 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
263 variable arguments and supports assignment.
266 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
267 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
271 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
278 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
279 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
280 system is now defined by priority.
282 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
283 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
285 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
286 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
287 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
288 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
289 unknown flags be ignored.
291 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
292 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
293 processes if the package supports it
295 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
296 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
299 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
300 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
301 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
302 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
303 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
304 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
307 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
309 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
312 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
313 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
314 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
315 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
316 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
317 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
319 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
320 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
321 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
324 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
325 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
328 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
329 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
332 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
333 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
334 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
335 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
336 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
337 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
340 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
341 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
343 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
344 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
347 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
350 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
357 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
358 anything, even the end of a part.
360 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
361 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
364 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
365 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
367 <tag>menu policy</tag>
368 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
369 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
370 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
371 sections would be more appropriate.
373 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
376 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
377 critical, or emergency.
379 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
380 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
381 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
384 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
385 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
386 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
388 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
389 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
392 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
398 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
399 should to a must)</item>
402 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
408 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
411 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
418 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
419 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
420 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
421 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
422 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
423 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
426 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
427 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
428 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
431 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
438 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
439 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
440 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
442 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
443 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
445 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
446 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
447 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
448 etc. may be of interest.
449 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
450 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
451 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
452 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
453 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
454 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
455 as well, to prepare for future changes.
457 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
458 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
459 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
462 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
463 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
465 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
466 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
467 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
468 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
472 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
479 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
482 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
483 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
484 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
487 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
488 allow packages to share image files with the web server
492 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
499 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
500 user prompts are now deprecated.
510 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
511 the minor version number:
513 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
514 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
515 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
516 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
517 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
518 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
519 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
520 deb-building tool-chain.
522 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
523 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
524 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
525 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
527 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
528 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
529 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
530 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
531 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
532 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
533 sections about changelog files.
534 <tag>menu policy</tag>
535 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
538 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
540 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
541 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
543 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
547 <sect> Version 3.5.10
554 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
555 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
558 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
559 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
562 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
569 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
570 full details of the long description format.
572 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
573 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
574 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
576 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
577 the init script should start the service.
579 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
580 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
581 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
584 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
591 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
592 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
593 documented in the changelog file.
595 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
596 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
598 <tag>menu policy</tag>
599 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
600 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
601 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
603 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
604 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
608 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
615 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
616 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
618 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
621 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
622 special Tasks: field in the control file.
624 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
625 they add themselves as an alternative for
626 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
628 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
629 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
630 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
631 environment variable.
633 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
634 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
635 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
636 review the new rules.
638 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
639 scripts. Long rationale.
643 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
644 rules, please see below
647 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
654 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
657 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
658 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
660 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
661 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
663 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
664 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
665 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
666 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
668 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
669 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
672 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
679 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
680 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
681 symlinks or .so pages to do this
684 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
685 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
686 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
689 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
690 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
693 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
694 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
697 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
700 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
703 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
707 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
709 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
710 fonts for the X Window System
713 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
716 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
717 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
720 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
721 OSF/Motif-linked ones
726 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
727 <p> Released Apr 2001.
731 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
732 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
733 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
736 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
737 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
738 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
743 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
744 <p> Released Apr 2001
748 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
749 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
752 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
753 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
754 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
755 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
759 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
761 <p> Released Feb 2001.
765 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
766 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
767 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
771 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
773 <p> Released Feb 2001.
777 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
778 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
782 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
784 <p> Released Jan 2001.
788 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
789 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
793 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
795 <p> Released Jan 2001.
799 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
800 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
801 <file>/etc/default/</file>
804 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
805 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
806 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
807 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
810 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
815 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
821 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
822 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
823 and the other without
827 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
833 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
834 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
835 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
838 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
839 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
840 should always be generated for the upstream changes
843 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
844 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
847 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
851 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
853 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
855 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
856 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
857 calculation guidelines)
860 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
862 <item>X application defaults </item>
866 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
870 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
872 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
873 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
878 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
880 <p> Released Nov 1999.
884 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
885 etc. Should not affect many packages
889 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
891 <p> Released Oct 1999.
895 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
896 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
900 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
902 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
903 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
904 but should use update-rc.d instead)
907 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
908 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
909 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
910 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
914 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
915 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
916 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
917 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
920 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
921 <file>/var/lib</file>
923 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
924 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
926 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
929 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
930 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
934 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
935 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
936 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
939 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
944 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
946 <p> Released Jul 1999.
950 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
951 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
952 files must go in the run-time library package
956 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
958 <p> Released Jun 1999.
962 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
963 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
967 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
968 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
971 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
972 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
973 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
977 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
978 include the .la files in the -dev packages
981 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
984 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
987 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
988 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
989 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
992 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
993 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
994 installed setgid utmp
998 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1001 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
1003 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1007 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1009 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1010 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1011 Section 5 and Section 6.
1013 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1014 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1015 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1016 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1017 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1021 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1022 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1023 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1024 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1026 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1027 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1029 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1030 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1032 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1033 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1035 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1040 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1042 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1044 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1046 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1047 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1048 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1049 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1052 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1053 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1054 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1058 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1060 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1061 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1062 installs shared libraries
1063 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1067 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1069 <p> Released Jan 1998
1072 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1074 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1075 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1077 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1078 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1082 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1083 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1084 file extension as the referenced file
1087 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1088 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1089 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1092 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1094 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1095 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1096 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1100 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1101 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1102 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1105 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1106 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1107 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1108 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1112 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1113 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1117 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1118 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1119 reasonable default configuration
1122 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1123 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1124 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1127 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1129 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1130 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1132 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1133 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1137 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1138 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1143 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1145 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1148 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1149 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1150 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1153 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1154 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1157 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1160 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1162 <p> Released July 1997.
1165 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1168 where <arch> is one of the following:
1169 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1172 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1174 <item>user ID's</item>
1176 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1178 <item>cron jobs</item>
1180 <item>device files</item>
1182 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1184 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1187 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1189 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1192 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1195 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1197 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1199 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1201 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1205 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1207 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1210 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1213 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1215 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1218 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1220 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1221 without consultation </item>
1223 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1226 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1228 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1231 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>