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="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
43 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
44 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
45 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
47 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
48 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
49 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
51 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
55 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
56 package control files.
59 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
60 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
61 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
64 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
68 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
71 Released August, 2012.
75 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
78 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
79 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
82 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
83 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
84 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
87 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
90 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
91 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
92 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
93 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
96 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
97 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
98 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
99 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
100 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
101 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
104 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
105 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
106 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
109 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
110 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
112 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
113 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
116 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
120 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
123 Released February, 2012.
127 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
128 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
131 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
132 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
133 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
136 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
137 list of architectures must be non-empty.
140 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
141 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
142 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
143 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
144 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
145 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
146 should be stored in a temporary file system.
149 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
150 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
151 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
155 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
156 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
157 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
158 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
159 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
162 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
165 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
166 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
169 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
170 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
171 they have been removed.
174 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
175 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
176 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
178 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
179 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
180 file" specification is included.
183 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
184 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
188 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
189 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
192 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
193 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
197 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
200 Released April, 2011.
204 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
205 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
209 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
210 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
211 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
212 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
215 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
216 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
217 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
221 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
222 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
223 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
224 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
228 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
231 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
232 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
233 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
234 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
238 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
239 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
240 dependencies are now a should not.
243 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
244 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
245 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
246 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
247 actions if their dependencies are not available.
250 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
251 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
254 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
255 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
256 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
257 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
258 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
261 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
262 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
263 POSIX-required interface.
267 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
274 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
275 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
279 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
280 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
281 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
284 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
285 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
286 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
289 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
290 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
291 architecture-independent.
294 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
295 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
296 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
299 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
300 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
301 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
302 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
305 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
308 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
309 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
310 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
313 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
314 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
317 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
318 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
319 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
320 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
321 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
322 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
323 their <file>.la</file> files.
326 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
327 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
328 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
329 thread-safe if the library supports this.
332 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
333 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
334 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
335 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
336 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
339 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
340 logrotate rules is now recommended.
343 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
344 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
346 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
347 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
348 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
349 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
350 for the corresponding manual page.
353 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
354 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
355 executables in those subdirectories.
358 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
359 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
364 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
370 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
371 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
372 Date control field is now precisely specified.
375 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
376 particular field name.
378 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
379 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
380 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
381 documented and recommended.
383 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
384 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
385 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
386 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
387 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
388 for <file>.changes</file> files.
391 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
395 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
398 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
399 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
400 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
401 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
405 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
406 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
407 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
408 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
409 question, but should avoid this if possible.
411 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
412 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
413 files between packages.
416 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
417 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
418 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
421 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
422 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
425 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
426 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
427 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
428 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
431 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
433 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
434 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
435 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
438 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
439 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
440 It should instead be included directly
441 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
442 common-licenses for the time being.
445 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
446 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
447 template instead of a string to allow translation.
450 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
451 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
452 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
453 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
454 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
457 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
458 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
459 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
463 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
470 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
471 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
472 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
475 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
476 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
479 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
480 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
484 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
490 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
491 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
494 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
495 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
496 may be used in different versions of the field.
499 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
500 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
503 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
506 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
507 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
508 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
509 using them should be built with RPATH.
512 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
513 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
514 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
515 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
518 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
519 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
522 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
523 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
524 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
528 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
529 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
530 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
531 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
532 support partial upgrades.
535 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
536 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
540 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
547 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
548 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
549 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
550 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
554 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
555 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
556 back on other methods.
559 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
563 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
564 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
567 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
568 <file>/var/mail</file>.
571 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
575 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
576 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
580 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
587 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
588 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
589 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
592 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
595 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
599 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
600 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
603 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
604 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
607 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
610 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
611 with no preceding whitespace.
614 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
615 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
616 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
617 behavior of the init system in Debian.
620 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
621 start the daemon again if it's already running.
624 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
625 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
626 subdirectories dynamically.
629 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
630 variable arguments and supports assignment.
633 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
634 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
638 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
645 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
646 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
647 system is now defined by priority.
649 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
650 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
652 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
653 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
654 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
655 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
656 unknown flags be ignored.
658 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
659 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
660 processes if the package supports it
662 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
663 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
666 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
667 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
668 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
669 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
670 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
671 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
674 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
676 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
679 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
680 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
681 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
682 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
683 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
684 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
686 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
687 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
688 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
691 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
692 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
695 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
696 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
699 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
700 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
701 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
702 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
703 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
704 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
707 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
708 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
710 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
711 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
714 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
717 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
724 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
725 anything, even the end of a part.
727 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
728 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
731 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
732 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
734 <tag>menu policy</tag>
735 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
736 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
737 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
738 sections would be more appropriate.
740 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
743 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
744 critical, or emergency.
746 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
747 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
748 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
751 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
752 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
753 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
755 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
756 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
759 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
765 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
766 should to a must)</item>
769 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
775 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
778 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
785 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
786 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
787 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
788 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
789 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
790 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
793 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
794 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
795 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
798 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
805 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
806 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
807 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
809 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
810 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
812 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
813 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
814 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
815 etc. may be of interest.
816 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
817 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
818 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
819 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
820 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
821 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
822 as well, to prepare for future changes.
824 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
825 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
826 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
829 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
830 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
832 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
833 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
834 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
835 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
839 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
846 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
849 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
850 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
851 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
854 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
855 allow packages to share image files with the web server
859 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
866 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
867 user prompts are now deprecated.
870 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
877 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
878 the minor version number:
880 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
881 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
882 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
883 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
884 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
885 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
886 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
887 deb-building tool-chain.
889 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
890 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
891 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
892 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
894 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
895 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
896 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
897 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
898 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
899 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
900 sections about changelog files.
901 <tag>menu policy</tag>
902 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
905 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
907 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
908 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
910 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
914 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
921 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
922 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
925 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
926 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
929 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
936 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
937 full details of the long description format.
939 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
940 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
941 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
943 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
944 the init script should start the service.
946 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
947 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
948 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
951 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
958 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
959 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
960 documented in the changelog file.
962 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
963 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
965 <tag>menu policy</tag>
966 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
967 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
968 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
970 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
971 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
975 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
982 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
983 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
985 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
988 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
989 special Tasks: field in the control file.
991 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
992 they add themselves as an alternative for
993 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
995 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
996 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
997 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
998 environment variable.
1000 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1001 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1002 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1003 review the new rules.
1005 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1006 scripts. Long rationale.
1010 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1011 rules, please see below
1014 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1021 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1024 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1025 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1027 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1028 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1030 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1031 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1032 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1033 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1035 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1036 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1039 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1046 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1047 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1048 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1051 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1052 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1053 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1056 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1057 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1060 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1061 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1064 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1067 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1070 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1074 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1076 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1077 fonts for the X Window System
1080 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1083 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1084 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1087 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1088 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1093 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1094 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1098 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1099 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1100 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1103 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1104 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1105 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1110 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1111 <p> Released Apr 2001
1115 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1116 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1119 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1120 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1121 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1122 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1126 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1128 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1132 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1133 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1134 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1138 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1140 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1144 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1145 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1149 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1151 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1155 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1156 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1160 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1162 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1166 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1167 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1168 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1171 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1172 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1173 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1174 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1177 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1182 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1184 <p> Released Aug 00.
1188 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1189 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1190 and the other without
1194 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1196 <p> Released Aug 00.
1200 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1201 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1202 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1205 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1206 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1207 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1210 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1211 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1214 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1218 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1220 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1222 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1223 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1224 calculation guidelines)
1227 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1229 <item>X application defaults </item>
1233 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1237 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1239 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1240 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1245 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1247 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1251 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1252 etc. Should not affect many packages
1256 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1258 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1262 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1263 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1267 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1269 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1270 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1271 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1274 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1275 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1276 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1277 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1281 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1282 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1283 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1284 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1287 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1288 <file>/var/lib</file>
1290 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1291 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1293 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1296 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1297 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1301 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1302 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1303 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1306 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1311 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1313 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1317 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1318 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1319 files must go in the run-time library package
1323 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1325 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1329 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1330 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1334 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1335 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1338 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1339 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1340 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1341 other major licenses
1344 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1345 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1348 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1351 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1354 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1355 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1356 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1359 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1360 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1361 installed setgid utmp
1365 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1368 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1370 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1374 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1376 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1377 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1378 Section 5 and Section 6.
1380 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1381 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1382 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1383 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1384 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1388 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1389 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1390 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1391 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1393 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1394 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1396 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1397 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1399 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1400 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1402 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1407 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1409 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1411 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1413 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1414 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1415 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1416 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1419 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1420 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1421 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1425 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1427 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1428 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1429 installs shared libraries
1430 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1434 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1436 <p> Released Jan 1998
1439 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1441 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1442 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1444 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1445 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1449 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1450 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1451 file extension as the referenced file
1454 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1455 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1456 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1459 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1461 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1462 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1463 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1467 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1468 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1469 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1472 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1473 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1474 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1475 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1479 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1480 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1484 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1485 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1486 reasonable default configuration
1489 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1490 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1491 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1494 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1496 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1497 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1499 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1500 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1504 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1505 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1510 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1512 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1515 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1516 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1517 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1520 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1521 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1524 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1527 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1529 <p> Released July 1997.
1532 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1535 where <arch> is one of the following:
1536 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1539 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1541 <item>user ID's</item>
1543 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1545 <item>cron jobs</item>
1547 <item>device files</item>
1549 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1551 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1554 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1556 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1559 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1562 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1564 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1566 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1568 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1572 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1574 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1577 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1580 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1582 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1585 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1587 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1588 without consultation </item>
1590 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1593 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1595 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1598 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>