1 <!doctype debiandoc system>
5 <title> Policy checklist for upgrading your packages </title>
6 <author> Bill Allombert <email/ballombe@debian.org/ </author>
7 <author> Josip Rodin </author>
8 <author> Julian Gilbey </author>
9 <author> Russ Allbery </author>
10 <author> Manoj Srivastava <email/srivasta@debian.org/
12 <chapt> About the checklist
14 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
15 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
16 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
17 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
18 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
19 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
20 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
21 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
22 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
23 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
24 used below refer to the current version.
26 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
27 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
28 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
29 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
30 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
31 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
32 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
33 picking your way through this list.
37 <sect> Version 3.8.5.0
43 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
44 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
45 Date control field is now precisely specified.
47 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
48 <item>Document and recommend the <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
49 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields in <file>*.dsc</file>
50 and <file>*.changes</file> files.
52 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
53 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
54 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
55 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
59 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
60 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
61 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
62 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
63 question, but should avoid this if possible.
66 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
68 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
69 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
70 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
73 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
74 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
75 It should instead be included directly
76 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
77 common-licenses for the time being.
80 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
81 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
82 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
83 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
84 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
87 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
88 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
89 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
93 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
100 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
101 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
102 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
105 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
106 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
109 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
110 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
114 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
120 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
121 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
124 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
125 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
126 may be used in different versions of the field.
129 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
130 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
133 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
136 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
137 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
138 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
139 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
142 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
143 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
144 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
147 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
148 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
151 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
152 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
153 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
157 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
158 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
159 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
160 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
161 support partial upgrades.
164 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
165 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
169 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
176 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
177 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
178 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
179 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
183 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
184 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
185 back on other methods.
188 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
192 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
193 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
196 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
197 <file>/var/mail</file>.
200 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
204 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
205 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
209 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
216 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
217 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
218 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
221 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
224 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
228 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
229 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
232 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
233 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
236 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
239 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
240 preceding whitespace.
243 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
244 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
245 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
246 behavior of the init system in Debian.
249 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
250 start the daemon again if it's already running.
253 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
254 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
255 subdirectories dynamically.
258 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
259 variable arguments and supports assignment.
262 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
263 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
267 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
274 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
275 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
276 system is now defined by priority.
278 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
279 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
281 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
282 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
283 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
284 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
285 unknown flags be ignored.
287 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
288 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
289 processes if the package supports it
291 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
292 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
295 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
296 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
297 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
298 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
299 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
300 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
303 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
305 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
308 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
309 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
310 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
311 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
312 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
313 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
315 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
316 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
317 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
320 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
321 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
324 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
325 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
328 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
329 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
330 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
331 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
332 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
333 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
336 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
337 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
339 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
340 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
343 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
346 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
353 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
354 anything, even the end of a part.
356 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
357 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
360 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
361 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
363 <tag>menu policy</tag>
364 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
365 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
366 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
367 sections would be more appropriate.
369 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
372 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
373 critical, or emergency.
375 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
376 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
377 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
380 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
381 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
382 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
384 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
385 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
388 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
394 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
395 should to a must)</item>
398 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
404 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
407 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
414 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
415 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
416 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
417 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
418 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
419 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
422 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
423 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
424 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
427 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
434 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
435 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
436 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
438 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
439 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
441 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
442 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
443 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
444 etc. may be of interest.
445 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
446 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
447 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
448 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
449 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
450 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
451 as well, to prepare for future changes.
453 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
454 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
455 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
458 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
459 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
461 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
462 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
463 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
464 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
468 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
475 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
478 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
479 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
480 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
483 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
484 allow packages to share image files with the web server
488 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
495 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
496 user prompts are now deprecated.
506 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
507 the minor version number:
509 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
510 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
511 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
512 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
513 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
514 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
515 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
516 deb-building tool-chain.
518 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
519 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
520 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
521 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
523 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
524 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
525 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
526 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
527 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
528 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
529 sections about changelog files.
530 <tag>menu policy</tag>
531 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
534 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
536 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
537 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
539 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
543 <sect> Version 3.5.10
550 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
551 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
554 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
555 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
558 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
565 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
566 full details of the long description format.
568 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
569 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
570 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
572 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
573 the init script should start the service.
575 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
576 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
577 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
580 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
587 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
588 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
589 documented in the changelog file.
591 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
592 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
594 <tag>menu policy</tag>
595 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
596 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
597 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
599 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
600 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
604 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
611 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
612 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
614 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
617 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
618 special Tasks: field in the control file.
620 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
621 they add themselves as an alternative for
622 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
624 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
625 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
626 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
627 environment variable.
629 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
630 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
631 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
632 review the new rules.
634 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
635 scripts. Long rationale.
639 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
640 rules, please see below
643 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
650 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
653 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
654 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
656 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
657 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
659 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
660 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
661 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
662 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
664 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
665 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
668 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
675 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
676 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
677 symlinks or .so pages to do this
680 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
681 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
682 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
685 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
686 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
689 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
690 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
693 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
696 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
699 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
703 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
705 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
706 fonts for the X Window System
709 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
712 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
713 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
716 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
717 OSF/Motif-linked ones
722 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
723 <p> Released Apr 2001.
727 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
728 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
729 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
732 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
733 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
734 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
739 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
740 <p> Released Apr 2001
744 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
745 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
748 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
749 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
750 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
751 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
755 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
757 <p> Released Feb 2001.
761 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
762 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
763 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
767 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
769 <p> Released Feb 2001.
773 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
774 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
778 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
780 <p> Released Jan 2001.
784 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
785 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
789 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
791 <p> Released Jan 2001.
795 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
796 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
797 <file>/etc/default/</file>
800 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
801 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
802 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
803 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
806 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
811 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
817 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
818 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
819 and the other without
823 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
829 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
830 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
831 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
834 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
835 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
836 should always be generated for the upstream changes
839 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
840 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
843 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
847 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
849 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
851 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
852 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
853 calculation guidelines)
856 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
858 <item>X application defaults </item>
862 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
866 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
868 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
869 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
874 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
876 <p> Released Nov 1999.
880 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
881 etc. Should not affect many packages
885 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
887 <p> Released Oct 1999.
891 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
892 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
896 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
898 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
899 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
900 but should use update-rc.d instead)
903 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
904 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
905 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
906 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
910 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
911 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
912 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
913 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
916 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
917 <file>/var/lib</file>
919 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
920 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
922 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
925 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
926 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
930 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
931 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
932 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
935 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
940 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
942 <p> Released Jul 1999.
946 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
947 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
948 files must go in the run-time library package
952 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
954 <p> Released Jun 1999.
958 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
959 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
963 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
964 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
967 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
968 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
969 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
973 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
974 include the .la files in the -dev packages
977 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
980 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
983 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
984 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
985 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
988 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
989 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
990 installed setgid utmp
994 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
997 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
999 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1003 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1005 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1006 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1007 Section 5 and Section 6.
1009 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1010 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1011 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1012 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1013 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1017 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1018 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1019 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1020 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1022 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1023 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1025 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1026 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1028 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1029 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1031 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1036 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1038 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1040 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1042 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1043 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1044 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1045 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1048 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1049 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1050 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1054 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1056 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1057 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1058 installs shared libraries
1059 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1063 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1065 <p> Released Jan 1998
1068 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1070 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1071 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1073 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1074 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1078 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1079 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1080 file extension as the referenced file
1083 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1084 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1085 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1088 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1090 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1091 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1092 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1096 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1097 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1098 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1101 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1102 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1103 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1104 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1108 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1109 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1113 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1114 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1115 reasonable default configuration
1118 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1119 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1120 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1123 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1125 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1126 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1128 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1129 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1133 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1134 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1139 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1141 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1144 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1145 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1146 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1149 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1150 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1153 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1156 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1158 <p> Released July 1997.
1161 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1164 where <arch> is one of the following:
1165 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1168 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1170 <item>user ID's</item>
1172 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1174 <item>cron jobs</item>
1176 <item>device files</item>
1178 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1180 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1183 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1185 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1188 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1191 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1193 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1195 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1197 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1201 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1203 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1206 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1209 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1211 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1214 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1216 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1217 without consultation </item>
1219 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1222 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1224 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1227 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>