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 id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
44 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
45 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
48 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
49 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
50 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
53 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
54 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
55 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
56 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
57 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable prefix.
60 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
63 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
64 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
65 they have been removed.
68 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
69 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
70 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
73 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
74 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
77 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
78 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
82 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
89 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
90 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
94 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
95 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
96 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
97 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
100 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
101 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
102 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
106 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
107 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
108 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
109 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
113 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
116 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
117 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
118 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
119 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
123 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
124 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
125 dependencies are now a should not.
128 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
129 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
130 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
131 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
132 actions if their dependencies are not available.
135 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
136 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
139 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
140 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
141 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
142 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
143 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
146 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
147 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
148 POSIX-required interface.
152 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
159 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
160 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
164 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
165 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
166 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
169 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
170 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
171 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
174 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
175 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
176 architecture-independent.
179 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
180 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
181 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
184 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
185 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
186 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
187 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
190 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
193 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
194 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
195 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
198 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
199 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
202 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
203 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
204 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
205 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
206 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
207 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
208 their <file>.la</file> files.
211 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
212 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
213 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
214 thread-safe if the library supports this.
217 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
218 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
219 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
220 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
221 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
224 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
225 logrotate rules is now recommended.
228 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
229 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
231 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
232 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
233 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
234 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
235 for the corresponding manual page.
238 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
239 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
240 executables in those subdirectories.
243 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
244 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
249 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
255 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
256 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
257 Date control field is now precisely specified.
260 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
261 particular field name.
263 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
264 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
265 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
266 documented and recommended.
268 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
269 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
270 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
271 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
272 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
273 for <file>.changes</file> files.
276 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
280 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
283 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
284 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
285 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
286 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
290 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
291 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
292 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
293 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
294 question, but should avoid this if possible.
296 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
297 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
298 files between packages.
301 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
302 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
303 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
306 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
307 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
310 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
311 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
312 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
313 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
316 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
318 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
319 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
320 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
323 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
324 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
325 It should instead be included directly
326 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
327 common-licenses for the time being.
330 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
331 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
332 template instead of a string to allow translation.
335 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
336 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
337 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
338 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
339 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
342 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
343 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
344 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
348 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
355 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
356 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
357 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
360 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
361 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
364 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
365 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
369 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
375 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
376 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
379 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
380 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
381 may be used in different versions of the field.
384 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
385 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
388 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
391 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
392 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
393 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
394 using them should be built with RPATH.
397 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
398 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
399 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
400 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
403 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
404 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
407 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
408 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
409 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
413 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
414 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
415 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
416 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
417 support partial upgrades.
420 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
421 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
425 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
432 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
433 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
434 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
435 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
439 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
440 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
441 back on other methods.
444 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
448 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
449 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
452 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
453 <file>/var/mail</file>.
456 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
460 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
461 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
465 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
472 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
473 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
474 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
477 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
480 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
484 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
485 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
488 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
489 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
492 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
495 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
496 with no preceding whitespace.
499 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
500 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
501 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
502 behavior of the init system in Debian.
505 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
506 start the daemon again if it's already running.
509 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
510 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
511 subdirectories dynamically.
514 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
515 variable arguments and supports assignment.
518 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
519 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
523 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
530 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
531 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
532 system is now defined by priority.
534 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
535 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
537 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
538 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
539 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
540 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
541 unknown flags be ignored.
543 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
544 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
545 processes if the package supports it
547 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
548 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
551 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
552 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
553 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
554 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
555 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
556 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
559 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
561 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
564 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
565 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
566 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
567 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
568 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
569 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
571 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
572 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
573 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
576 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
577 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
580 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
581 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
584 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
585 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
586 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
587 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
588 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
589 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
592 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
593 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
595 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
596 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
599 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
602 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
609 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
610 anything, even the end of a part.
612 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
613 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
616 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
617 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
619 <tag>menu policy</tag>
620 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
621 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
622 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
623 sections would be more appropriate.
625 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
628 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
629 critical, or emergency.
631 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
632 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
633 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
636 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
637 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
638 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
640 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
641 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
644 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
650 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
651 should to a must)</item>
654 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
660 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
663 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
670 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
671 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
672 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
673 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
674 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
675 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
678 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
679 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
680 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
683 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
690 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
691 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
692 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
694 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
695 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
697 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
698 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
699 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
700 etc. may be of interest.
701 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
702 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
703 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
704 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
705 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
706 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
707 as well, to prepare for future changes.
709 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
710 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
711 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
714 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
715 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
717 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
718 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
719 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
720 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
724 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
731 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
734 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
735 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
736 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
739 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
740 allow packages to share image files with the web server
744 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
751 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
752 user prompts are now deprecated.
755 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
762 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
763 the minor version number:
765 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
766 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
767 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
768 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
769 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
770 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
771 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
772 deb-building tool-chain.
774 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
775 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
776 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
777 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
779 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
780 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
781 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
782 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
783 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
784 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
785 sections about changelog files.
786 <tag>menu policy</tag>
787 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
790 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
792 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
793 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
795 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
799 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
806 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
807 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
810 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
811 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
814 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
821 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
822 full details of the long description format.
824 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
825 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
826 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
828 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
829 the init script should start the service.
831 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
832 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
833 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
836 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
843 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
844 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
845 documented in the changelog file.
847 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
848 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
850 <tag>menu policy</tag>
851 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
852 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
853 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
855 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
856 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
860 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
867 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
868 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
870 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
873 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
874 special Tasks: field in the control file.
876 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
877 they add themselves as an alternative for
878 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
880 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
881 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
882 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
883 environment variable.
885 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
886 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
887 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
888 review the new rules.
890 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
891 scripts. Long rationale.
895 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
896 rules, please see below
899 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
906 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
909 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
910 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
912 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
913 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
915 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
916 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
917 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
918 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
920 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
921 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
924 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
931 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
932 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
933 symlinks or .so pages to do this
936 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
937 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
938 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
941 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
942 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
945 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
946 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
949 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
952 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
955 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
959 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
961 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
962 fonts for the X Window System
965 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
968 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
969 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
972 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
973 OSF/Motif-linked ones
978 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
979 <p> Released Apr 2001.
983 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
984 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
985 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
988 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
989 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
990 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
995 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
996 <p> Released Apr 2001
1000 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1001 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1004 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1005 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1006 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1007 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1011 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1013 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1017 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1018 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1019 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1023 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1025 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1029 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1030 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1034 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1036 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1040 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1041 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1045 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1047 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1051 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1052 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1053 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1056 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1057 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1058 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1059 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1062 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1067 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1069 <p> Released Aug 00.
1073 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1074 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1075 and the other without
1079 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1081 <p> Released Aug 00.
1085 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1086 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1087 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1090 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1091 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1092 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1095 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1096 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1099 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1103 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1105 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1107 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1108 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1109 calculation guidelines)
1112 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1114 <item>X application defaults </item>
1118 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1122 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1124 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1125 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1130 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1132 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1136 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1137 etc. Should not affect many packages
1141 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1143 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1147 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1148 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1152 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1154 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1155 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1156 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1159 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1160 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1161 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1162 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1166 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1167 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1168 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1169 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1172 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1173 <file>/var/lib</file>
1175 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1176 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1178 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1181 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1182 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1186 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1187 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1188 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1191 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1196 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1198 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1202 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1203 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1204 files must go in the run-time library package
1208 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1210 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1214 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1215 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1219 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1220 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1223 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1224 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1225 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1226 other major licenses
1229 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1230 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1233 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1236 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1239 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1240 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1241 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1244 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1245 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1246 installed setgid utmp
1250 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1253 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1255 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1259 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1261 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1262 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1263 Section 5 and Section 6.
1265 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1266 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1267 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1268 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1269 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1273 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1274 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1275 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1276 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1278 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1279 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1281 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1282 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1284 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1285 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1287 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1292 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1294 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1296 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1298 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1299 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1300 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1301 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1304 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1305 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1306 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1310 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1312 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1313 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1314 installs shared libraries
1315 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1319 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1321 <p> Released Jan 1998
1324 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1326 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1327 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1329 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1330 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1334 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1335 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1336 file extension as the referenced file
1339 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1340 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1341 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1344 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1346 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1347 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1348 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1352 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1353 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1354 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1357 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1358 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1359 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1360 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1364 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1365 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1369 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1370 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1371 reasonable default configuration
1374 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1375 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1376 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1379 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1381 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1382 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1384 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1385 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1389 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1390 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1395 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1397 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1400 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1401 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1402 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1405 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1406 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1409 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1412 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1414 <p> Released July 1997.
1417 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1420 where <arch> is one of the following:
1421 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1424 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1426 <item>user ID's</item>
1428 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1430 <item>cron jobs</item>
1432 <item>device files</item>
1434 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1436 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1439 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1441 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1444 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1447 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1449 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1451 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1453 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1457 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1459 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1462 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1465 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1467 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1470 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1472 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1473 without consultation </item>
1475 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1478 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1480 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1483 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>