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.
64 <sect id="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
67 Released October, 2013.
71 <item>Control data fields must not start with the hyphen character
72 (<tt>-</tt>), to avoid potential confusions when parsing clearsigned control
73 data files that were not properly unescaped.
75 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
76 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
77 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
79 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
80 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
81 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
83 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
87 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
88 package control files.
91 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
95 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
98 <item>Packages should remove all obsolete configuration files without
99 local changes during upgrades. The <prgn>dpkg-maintscript-helper</prgn>
100 tool, available from the <package>dpkg</package> package since
101 <em>Wheezy</em>, can help with this.
104 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
105 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
106 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
109 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
110 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
113 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
114 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
115 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
118 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
121 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
124 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
127 Released August, 2012.
131 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
134 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
135 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
138 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
139 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
140 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
143 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
146 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
147 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
148 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
149 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
152 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
153 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
154 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
155 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
156 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
157 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
160 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
161 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
162 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
165 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
166 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
168 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
169 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
172 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
176 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
179 Released February, 2012.
183 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
184 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
187 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
188 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
189 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
192 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
193 list of architectures must be non-empty.
196 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
197 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
198 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
199 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
200 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
201 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
202 should be stored in a temporary file system.
205 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
206 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
207 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
211 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
212 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
213 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
214 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
215 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
218 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
221 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
222 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
225 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
226 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
227 they have been removed.
230 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
231 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
232 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
234 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
235 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
236 file" specification is included.
239 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
240 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
244 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
245 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
248 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
249 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
253 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
256 Released April, 2011.
260 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
261 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
265 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
266 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
267 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
268 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
271 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
272 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
273 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
277 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
278 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
279 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
280 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
284 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
287 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
288 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
289 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
290 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
294 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
295 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
296 dependencies are now a should not.
299 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
300 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
301 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
302 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
303 actions if their dependencies are not available.
306 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
307 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
310 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
311 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
312 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
313 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
314 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
317 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
318 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
319 POSIX-required interface.
323 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
330 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
331 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
335 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
336 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
337 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
340 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
341 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
342 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
345 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
346 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
347 architecture-independent.
350 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
351 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
352 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
355 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
356 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
357 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
358 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
361 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
364 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
365 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
366 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
369 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
370 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
373 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
374 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
375 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
376 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
377 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
378 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
379 their <file>.la</file> files.
382 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
383 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
384 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
385 thread-safe if the library supports this.
388 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
389 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
390 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
391 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
392 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
395 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
396 logrotate rules is now recommended.
399 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
400 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
402 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
403 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
404 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
405 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
406 for the corresponding manual page.
409 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
410 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
411 executables in those subdirectories.
414 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
415 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
420 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
426 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
427 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
428 Date control field is now precisely specified.
431 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
432 particular field name.
434 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
435 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
436 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
437 documented and recommended.
439 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
440 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
441 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
442 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
443 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
444 for <file>.changes</file> files.
447 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
451 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
454 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
455 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
456 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
457 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
461 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
462 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
463 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
464 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
465 question, but should avoid this if possible.
467 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
468 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
469 files between packages.
472 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
473 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
474 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
477 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
478 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
481 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
482 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
483 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
484 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
487 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
489 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
490 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
491 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
494 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
495 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
496 It should instead be included directly
497 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
498 common-licenses for the time being.
501 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
502 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
503 template instead of a string to allow translation.
506 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
507 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
508 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
509 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
510 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
513 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
514 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
515 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
519 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
526 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
527 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
528 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
531 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
532 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
535 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
536 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
540 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
546 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
547 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
550 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
551 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
552 may be used in different versions of the field.
555 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
556 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
559 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
562 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
563 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
564 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
565 using them should be built with RPATH.
568 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
569 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
570 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
571 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
574 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
575 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
578 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
579 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
580 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
584 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
585 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
586 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
587 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
588 support partial upgrades.
591 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
592 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
596 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
603 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
604 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
605 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
606 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
610 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
611 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
612 back on other methods.
615 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
619 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
620 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
623 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
624 <file>/var/mail</file>.
627 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
631 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
632 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
636 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
643 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
644 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
645 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
648 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
651 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
655 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
656 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
659 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
660 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
663 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
666 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
667 with no preceding whitespace.
670 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
671 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
672 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
673 behavior of the init system in Debian.
676 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
677 start the daemon again if it's already running.
680 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
681 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
682 subdirectories dynamically.
685 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
686 variable arguments and supports assignment.
689 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
690 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
694 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
701 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
702 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
703 system is now defined by priority.
705 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
706 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
708 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
709 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
710 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
711 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
712 unknown flags be ignored.
714 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
715 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
716 processes if the package supports it
718 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
719 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
722 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
723 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
724 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
725 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
726 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
727 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
730 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
732 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
735 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
736 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
737 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
738 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
739 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
740 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
742 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
743 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
744 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
747 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
748 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
751 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
752 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
755 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
756 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
757 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
758 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
759 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
760 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
763 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
764 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
766 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
767 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
770 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
773 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
780 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
781 anything, even the end of a part.
783 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
784 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
787 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
788 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
790 <tag>menu policy</tag>
791 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
792 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
793 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
794 sections would be more appropriate.
796 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
799 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
800 critical, or emergency.
802 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
803 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
804 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
807 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
808 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
809 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
811 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
812 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
815 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
821 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
822 should to a must)</item>
825 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
831 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
834 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
841 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
842 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
843 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
844 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
845 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
846 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
849 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
850 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
851 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
854 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
861 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
862 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
863 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
865 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
866 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
868 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
869 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
870 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
871 etc. may be of interest.
872 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
873 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
874 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
875 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
876 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
877 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
878 as well, to prepare for future changes.
880 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
881 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
882 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
885 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
886 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
888 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
889 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
890 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
891 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
895 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
902 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
905 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
906 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
907 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
910 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
911 allow packages to share image files with the web server
915 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
922 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
923 user prompts are now deprecated.
926 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
933 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
934 the minor version number:
936 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
937 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
938 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
939 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
940 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
941 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
942 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
943 deb-building tool-chain.
945 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
946 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
947 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
948 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
950 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
951 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
952 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
953 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
954 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
955 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
956 sections about changelog files.
957 <tag>menu policy</tag>
958 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
961 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
963 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
964 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
966 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
970 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
977 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
978 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
981 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
982 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
985 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
992 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
993 full details of the long description format.
995 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
996 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
997 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
999 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
1000 the init script should start the service.
1002 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
1003 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
1004 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
1007 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
1014 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
1015 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
1016 documented in the changelog file.
1018 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
1019 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
1021 <tag>menu policy</tag>
1022 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
1023 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
1024 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
1026 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
1027 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
1031 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1038 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1039 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1041 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1044 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1045 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1047 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1048 they add themselves as an alternative for
1049 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1051 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1052 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1053 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1054 environment variable.
1056 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1057 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1058 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1059 review the new rules.
1061 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1062 scripts. Long rationale.
1066 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1067 rules, please see below
1070 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1077 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1080 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1081 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1083 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1084 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1086 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1087 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1088 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1089 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1091 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1092 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1095 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1102 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1103 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1104 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1107 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1108 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1109 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1112 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1113 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1116 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1117 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1120 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1123 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1126 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1130 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1132 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1133 fonts for the X Window System
1136 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1139 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1140 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1143 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1144 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1149 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1150 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1154 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1155 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1156 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1158 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1159 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1160 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1165 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1166 <p> Released Apr 2001
1170 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1171 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1174 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1175 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1176 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1177 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1181 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1183 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1187 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1188 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1189 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1193 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1195 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1199 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1200 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1204 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1206 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1210 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1211 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1215 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1217 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1221 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1222 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1223 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1226 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1227 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1228 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1229 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1232 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1237 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1239 <p> Released Aug 00.
1243 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1244 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1245 and the other without
1249 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1251 <p> Released Aug 00.
1255 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1256 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1257 package with debugging information optionally.
1260 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1261 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1262 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1265 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1266 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1269 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1273 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1275 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1277 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1278 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1279 calculation guidelines)
1282 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1284 <item>X application defaults </item>
1288 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1292 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1294 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1295 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1300 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1302 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1306 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1307 etc. Should not affect many packages
1311 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1313 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1317 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1318 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1322 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1324 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1325 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1326 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1329 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1330 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1331 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1332 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1336 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1337 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1338 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1339 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1342 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1343 <file>/var/lib</file>
1345 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1346 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1348 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1351 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1352 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1356 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1357 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1358 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1361 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1366 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1368 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1372 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1373 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1374 files must go in the run-time library package
1378 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1380 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1384 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1385 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1389 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1390 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1393 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1394 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1395 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1396 other major licenses
1399 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1400 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1403 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1406 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1409 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1410 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1411 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1414 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1415 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1416 installed setgid utmp
1420 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1423 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1425 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1429 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1431 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1432 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1433 Section 5 and Section 6.
1435 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1436 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1437 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1438 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1439 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1443 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1444 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1445 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1446 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1448 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1449 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1451 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1452 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1454 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1455 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1457 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1462 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1464 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1466 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1468 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1469 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1470 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1471 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1474 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1475 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1476 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1480 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1482 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1483 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1484 installs shared libraries
1485 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1489 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1491 <p> Released Jan 1998
1494 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1496 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1497 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1499 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1500 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1504 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1505 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1506 file extension as the referenced file
1509 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1510 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1511 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1514 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1516 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1517 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1518 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1522 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1523 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1524 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1527 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1528 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1529 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1530 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1534 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1535 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1539 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1540 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1541 reasonable default configuration
1544 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1545 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1546 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1549 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1551 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1552 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1554 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1555 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1559 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1560 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1565 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1567 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1570 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1571 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1572 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1575 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1576 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1579 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1582 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1584 <p> Released July 1997.
1587 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1590 where <arch> is one of the following:
1591 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1594 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1596 <item>user ID's</item>
1598 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1600 <item>cron jobs</item>
1602 <item>device files</item>
1604 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1606 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1609 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1611 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1614 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1617 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1619 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1621 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1623 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1627 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1629 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1632 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1635 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1637 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1640 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1642 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1643 without consultation </item>
1645 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1648 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1650 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1653 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>