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="3.9.6.0"> Version 3.9.6.0
44 <item> The FHS is relaxed to allow a subdirectory of <file>/usr/lib</file>
45 to hold a mixture of architecture-independent and architecture-dependent
46 files, though directories entirely composed of architecture-independent files
47 should be located in <file>/usr/share</file>.
50 <item>The FHS requirement for <file>/usr/local/lib64</file> to exist
51 if <file>/lib64</file> or <file>/usr/lib64</file> exists is removed.
54 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch include files,
55 permitting header files to instead be installed to
56 <file>/usr/include/triplet</file>.
59 <item> Binaries must not be statically linked with the GNU C library,
60 see policy for exceptions.
63 <item><tt>java1-runtime</tt> and <tt>java2-runtime</tt> are removed,
64 <tt>javaN-runtime</tt> and <tt>javaN-runtime-headless</tt> are added
65 for all N between 5 and 9.
68 <item>Added <tt>httpd-wsgi</tt> for WSGI capable HTTP servers.
71 <item> Perl packages should use the <tt>%Config</tt> hash to locate module
72 paths instead of hardcoding paths in <tt>@INC</tt>.
75 <item> Perl binary modules and any modules installed into
76 <tt>$Config{vendorarch}</tt> must depend on the relevant
77 <package>perlapi-*</package> package.
78 </item> </taglist></p>
80 <sect id="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
83 Released October, 2013.
87 <item>Control data fields must not start with the hyphen character
88 (<tt>-</tt>), to avoid potential confusions when parsing clearsigned control
89 data files that were not properly unescaped.
91 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
92 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
93 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
95 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
96 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
97 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
99 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
100 source control files.
103 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
104 package control files.
107 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
108 source control files.
111 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
114 <item>Packages should remove all obsolete configuration files without
115 local changes during upgrades. The <prgn>dpkg-maintscript-helper</prgn>
116 tool, available from the <package>dpkg</package> package since
117 <em>Wheezy</em>, can help with this.
120 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
121 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
122 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
125 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
126 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
129 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
130 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
131 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
134 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
137 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
140 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
143 Released August, 2012.
147 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
150 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
151 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
154 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
155 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
156 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
159 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
162 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
163 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
164 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
165 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
168 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
169 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
170 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
171 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
172 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
173 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
176 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
177 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
178 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
181 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
182 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
184 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
185 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
188 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
192 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
195 Released February, 2012.
199 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
200 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
203 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
204 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
205 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
208 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
209 list of architectures must be non-empty.
212 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
213 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
214 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
215 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
216 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
217 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
218 should be stored in a temporary file system.
221 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
222 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
223 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
227 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
228 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
229 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
230 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
231 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
234 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
237 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
238 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
241 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
242 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
243 they have been removed.
246 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
247 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
248 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
250 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
251 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
252 file" specification is included.
255 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
256 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
260 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
261 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
264 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
265 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
269 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
272 Released April, 2011.
276 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
277 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
281 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
282 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
283 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
284 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
287 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
288 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
289 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
293 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
294 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
295 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
296 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
300 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
303 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
304 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
305 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
306 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
310 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
311 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
312 dependencies are now a should not.
315 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
316 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
317 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
318 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
319 actions if their dependencies are not available.
322 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
323 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
326 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
327 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
328 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
329 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
330 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
333 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
334 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
335 POSIX-required interface.
339 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
346 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
347 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
351 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
352 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
353 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
356 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
357 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
358 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
361 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
362 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
363 architecture-independent.
366 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
367 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
368 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
371 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
372 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
373 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
374 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
377 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
380 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
381 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
382 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
385 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
386 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
389 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
390 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
391 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
392 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
393 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
394 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
395 their <file>.la</file> files.
398 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
399 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
400 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
401 thread-safe if the library supports this.
404 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
405 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
406 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
407 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
408 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
411 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
412 logrotate rules is now recommended.
415 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
416 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
418 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
419 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
420 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
421 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
422 for the corresponding manual page.
425 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
426 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
427 executables in those subdirectories.
430 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
431 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
436 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
442 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
443 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
444 Date control field is now precisely specified.
447 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
448 particular field name.
450 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
451 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
452 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
453 documented and recommended.
455 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
456 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
457 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
458 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
459 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
460 for <file>.changes</file> files.
463 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
467 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
470 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
471 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
472 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
473 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
477 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
478 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
479 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
480 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
481 question, but should avoid this if possible.
483 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
484 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
485 files between packages.
488 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
489 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
490 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
493 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
494 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
497 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
498 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
499 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
500 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
503 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
505 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
506 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
507 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
510 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
511 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
512 It should instead be included directly
513 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
514 common-licenses for the time being.
517 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
518 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
519 template instead of a string to allow translation.
522 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
523 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
524 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
525 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
526 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
529 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
530 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
531 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
535 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
542 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
543 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
544 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
547 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
548 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
551 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
552 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
556 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
562 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
563 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
566 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
567 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
568 may be used in different versions of the field.
571 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
572 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
575 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
578 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
579 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
580 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
581 using them should be built with RPATH.
584 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
585 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
586 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
587 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
590 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
591 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
594 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
595 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
596 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
600 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
601 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
602 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
603 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
604 support partial upgrades.
607 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
608 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
612 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
619 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
620 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
621 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
622 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
626 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
627 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
628 back on other methods.
631 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
635 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
636 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
639 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
640 <file>/var/mail</file>.
643 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
647 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
648 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
652 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
659 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
660 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
661 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
664 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
667 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
671 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
672 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
675 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
676 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
679 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
682 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
683 with no preceding whitespace.
686 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
687 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
688 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
689 behavior of the init system in Debian.
692 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
693 start the daemon again if it's already running.
696 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
697 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
698 subdirectories dynamically.
701 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
702 variable arguments and supports assignment.
705 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
706 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
710 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
717 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
718 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
719 system is now defined by priority.
721 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
722 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
724 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
725 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
726 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
727 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
728 unknown flags be ignored.
730 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
731 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
732 processes if the package supports it
734 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
735 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
738 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
739 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
740 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
741 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
742 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
743 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
746 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
748 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
751 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
752 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
753 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
754 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
755 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
756 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
758 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
759 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
760 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
763 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
764 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
767 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
768 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
771 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
772 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
773 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
774 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
775 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
776 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
779 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
780 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
782 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
783 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
786 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
789 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
796 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
797 anything, even the end of a part.
799 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
800 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
803 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
804 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
806 <tag>menu policy</tag>
807 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
808 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
809 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
810 sections would be more appropriate.
812 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
815 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
816 critical, or emergency.
818 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
819 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
820 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
823 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
824 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
825 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
827 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
828 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
831 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
837 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
838 should to a must)</item>
841 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
847 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
850 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
857 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
858 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
859 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
860 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
861 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
862 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
865 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
866 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
867 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
870 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
877 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
878 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
879 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
881 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
882 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
884 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
885 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
886 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
887 etc. may be of interest.
888 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
889 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
890 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
891 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
892 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
893 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
894 as well, to prepare for future changes.
896 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
897 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
898 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
901 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
902 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
904 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
905 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
906 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
907 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
911 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
918 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
921 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
922 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
923 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
926 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
927 allow packages to share image files with the web server
931 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
938 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
939 user prompts are now deprecated.
942 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
949 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
950 the minor version number:
952 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
953 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
954 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
955 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
956 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
957 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
958 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
959 deb-building tool-chain.
961 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
962 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
963 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
964 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
966 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
967 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
968 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
969 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
970 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
971 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
972 sections about changelog files.
973 <tag>menu policy</tag>
974 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
977 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
979 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
980 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
982 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
986 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
993 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
994 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
997 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
998 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
1001 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
1008 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
1009 full details of the long description format.
1011 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
1012 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
1013 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
1015 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
1016 the init script should start the service.
1018 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
1019 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
1020 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
1023 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
1030 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
1031 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
1032 documented in the changelog file.
1034 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
1035 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
1037 <tag>menu policy</tag>
1038 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
1039 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
1040 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
1042 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
1043 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
1047 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1054 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1055 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1057 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1060 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1061 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1063 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1064 they add themselves as an alternative for
1065 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1067 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1068 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1069 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1070 environment variable.
1072 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1073 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1074 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1075 review the new rules.
1077 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1078 scripts. Long rationale.
1082 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1083 rules, please see below
1086 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1093 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1096 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1097 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1099 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1100 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1102 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1103 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1104 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1105 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1107 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1108 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1111 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1118 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1119 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1120 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1123 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1124 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1125 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1128 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1129 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1132 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1133 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1136 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1139 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1142 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1146 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1148 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1149 fonts for the X Window System
1152 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1155 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1156 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1159 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1160 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1165 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1166 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1170 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1171 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1172 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1174 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1175 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1176 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1181 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1182 <p> Released Apr 2001
1186 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1187 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1190 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1191 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1192 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1193 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1197 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1199 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1203 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1204 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1205 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1209 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1211 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1215 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1216 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1220 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1222 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1226 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1227 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1231 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1233 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1237 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1238 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1239 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1242 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1243 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1244 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1245 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1248 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1253 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1255 <p> Released Aug 00.
1259 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1260 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1261 and the other without
1265 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1267 <p> Released Aug 00.
1271 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1272 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1273 package with debugging information optionally.
1276 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1277 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1278 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1281 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1282 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1285 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1289 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1291 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1293 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1294 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1295 calculation guidelines)
1298 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1300 <item>X application defaults </item>
1304 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1308 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1310 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1311 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1316 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1318 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1322 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1323 etc. Should not affect many packages
1327 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1329 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1333 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1334 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1338 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1340 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1341 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1342 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1345 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1346 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1347 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1348 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1352 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1353 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1354 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1355 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1358 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1359 <file>/var/lib</file>
1361 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1362 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1364 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1367 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1368 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1372 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1373 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1374 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1377 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1382 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1384 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1388 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1389 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1390 files must go in the run-time library package
1394 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1396 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1400 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1401 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1405 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1406 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1409 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1410 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1411 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1412 other major licenses
1415 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1416 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1419 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1422 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1425 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1426 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1427 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1430 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1431 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1432 installed setgid utmp
1436 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1439 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1441 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1445 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1447 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1448 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1449 Section 5 and Section 6.
1451 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1452 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1453 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1454 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1455 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1459 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1460 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1461 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1462 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1464 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1465 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1467 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1468 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1470 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1471 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1473 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1478 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1480 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1482 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1484 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1485 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1486 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1487 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1490 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1491 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1492 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1496 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1498 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1499 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1500 installs shared libraries
1501 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1505 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1507 <p> Released Jan 1998
1510 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1512 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1513 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1515 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1516 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1520 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1521 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1522 file extension as the referenced file
1525 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1526 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1527 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1530 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1532 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1533 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1534 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1538 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1539 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1540 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1543 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1544 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1545 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1546 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1550 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1551 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1555 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1556 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1557 reasonable default configuration
1560 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1561 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1562 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1565 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1567 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1568 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1570 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1571 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1575 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1576 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1581 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1583 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1586 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1587 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1588 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1591 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1592 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1595 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1598 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1600 <p> Released July 1997.
1603 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1606 where <arch> is one of the following:
1607 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1610 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1612 <item>user ID's</item>
1614 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1616 <item>cron jobs</item>
1618 <item>device files</item>
1620 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1622 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1625 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1627 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1630 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1633 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1635 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1637 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1639 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1643 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1645 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1648 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1651 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1653 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1656 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1658 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1659 without consultation </item>
1661 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1664 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1666 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1669 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>