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.
48 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
49 particular field name.
51 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
52 <item>Document and recommend the <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
53 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields in <file>*.dsc</file>
54 and <file>*.changes</file> files.
57 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
61 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
64 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
65 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
66 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
67 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
71 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
72 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
73 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
74 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
75 question, but should avoid this if possible.
78 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
80 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
81 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
82 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
85 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
86 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
87 It should instead be included directly
88 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
89 common-licenses for the time being.
92 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
93 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
94 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
95 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
96 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
99 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
100 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
101 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
105 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
112 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
113 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
114 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
117 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
118 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
121 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
122 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
126 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
132 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
133 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
136 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
137 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
138 may be used in different versions of the field.
141 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
142 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
145 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
148 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
149 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
150 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
151 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
154 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
155 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
156 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
159 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
160 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
163 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
164 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
165 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
169 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
170 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
171 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
172 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
173 support partial upgrades.
176 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
177 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
181 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
188 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
189 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
190 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
191 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
195 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
196 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
197 back on other methods.
200 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
204 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
205 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
208 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
209 <file>/var/mail</file>.
212 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
216 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
217 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
221 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
228 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
229 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
230 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
233 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
236 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
240 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
241 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
244 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
245 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
248 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
251 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
252 preceding whitespace.
255 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
256 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
257 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
258 behavior of the init system in Debian.
261 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
262 start the daemon again if it's already running.
265 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
266 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
267 subdirectories dynamically.
270 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
271 variable arguments and supports assignment.
274 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
275 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
279 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
286 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
287 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
288 system is now defined by priority.
290 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
291 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
293 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
294 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
295 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
296 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
297 unknown flags be ignored.
299 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
300 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
301 processes if the package supports it
303 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
304 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
307 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
308 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
309 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
310 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
311 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
312 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
315 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
317 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
320 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
321 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
322 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
323 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
324 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
325 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
327 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
328 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
329 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
332 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
333 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
336 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
337 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
340 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
341 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
342 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
343 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
344 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
345 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
348 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
349 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
351 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
352 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
355 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
358 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
365 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
366 anything, even the end of a part.
368 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
369 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
372 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
373 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
375 <tag>menu policy</tag>
376 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
377 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
378 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
379 sections would be more appropriate.
381 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
384 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
385 critical, or emergency.
387 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
388 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
389 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
392 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
393 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
394 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
396 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
397 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
400 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
406 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
407 should to a must)</item>
410 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
416 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
419 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
426 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
427 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
428 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
429 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
430 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
431 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
434 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
435 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
436 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
439 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
446 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
447 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
448 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
450 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
451 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
453 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
454 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
455 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
456 etc. may be of interest.
457 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
458 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
459 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
460 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
461 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
462 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
463 as well, to prepare for future changes.
465 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
466 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
467 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
470 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
471 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
473 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
474 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
475 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
476 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
480 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
487 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
490 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
491 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
492 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
495 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
496 allow packages to share image files with the web server
500 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
507 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
508 user prompts are now deprecated.
518 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
519 the minor version number:
521 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
522 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
523 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
524 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
525 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
526 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
527 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
528 deb-building tool-chain.
530 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
531 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
532 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
533 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
535 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
536 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
537 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
538 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
539 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
540 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
541 sections about changelog files.
542 <tag>menu policy</tag>
543 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
546 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
548 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
549 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
551 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
555 <sect> Version 3.5.10
562 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
563 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
566 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
567 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
570 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
577 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
578 full details of the long description format.
580 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
581 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
582 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
584 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
585 the init script should start the service.
587 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
588 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
589 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
592 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
599 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
600 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
601 documented in the changelog file.
603 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
604 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
606 <tag>menu policy</tag>
607 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
608 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
609 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
611 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
612 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
616 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
623 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
624 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
626 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
629 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
630 special Tasks: field in the control file.
632 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
633 they add themselves as an alternative for
634 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
636 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
637 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
638 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
639 environment variable.
641 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
642 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
643 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
644 review the new rules.
646 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
647 scripts. Long rationale.
651 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
652 rules, please see below
655 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
662 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
665 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
666 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
668 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
669 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
671 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
672 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
673 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
674 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
676 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
677 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
680 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
687 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
688 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
689 symlinks or .so pages to do this
692 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
693 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
694 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
697 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
698 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
701 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
702 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
705 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
708 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
711 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
715 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
717 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
718 fonts for the X Window System
721 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
724 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
725 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
728 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
729 OSF/Motif-linked ones
734 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
735 <p> Released Apr 2001.
739 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
740 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
741 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
744 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
745 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
746 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
751 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
752 <p> Released Apr 2001
756 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
757 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
760 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
761 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
762 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
763 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
767 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
769 <p> Released Feb 2001.
773 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
774 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
775 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
779 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
781 <p> Released Feb 2001.
785 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
786 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
790 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
792 <p> Released Jan 2001.
796 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
797 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
801 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
803 <p> Released Jan 2001.
807 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
808 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
809 <file>/etc/default/</file>
812 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
813 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
814 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
815 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
818 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
823 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
829 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
830 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
831 and the other without
835 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
841 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
842 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
843 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
846 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
847 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
848 should always be generated for the upstream changes
851 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
852 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
855 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
859 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
861 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
863 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
864 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
865 calculation guidelines)
868 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
870 <item>X application defaults </item>
874 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
878 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
880 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
881 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
886 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
888 <p> Released Nov 1999.
892 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
893 etc. Should not affect many packages
897 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
899 <p> Released Oct 1999.
903 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
904 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
908 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
910 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
911 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
912 but should use update-rc.d instead)
915 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
916 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
917 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
918 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
922 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
923 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
924 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
925 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
928 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
929 <file>/var/lib</file>
931 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
932 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
934 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
937 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
938 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
942 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
943 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
944 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
947 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
952 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
954 <p> Released Jul 1999.
958 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
959 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
960 files must go in the run-time library package
964 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
966 <p> Released Jun 1999.
970 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
971 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
975 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
976 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
979 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
980 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
981 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
985 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
986 include the .la files in the -dev packages
989 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
992 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
995 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
996 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
997 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1000 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1001 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1002 installed setgid utmp
1006 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1009 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
1011 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1015 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1017 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1018 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1019 Section 5 and Section 6.
1021 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1022 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1023 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1024 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1025 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1029 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1030 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1031 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1032 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1034 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1035 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1037 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1038 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1040 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1041 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1043 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1048 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1050 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1052 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1054 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1055 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1056 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1057 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1060 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1061 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1062 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1066 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1068 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1069 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1070 installs shared libraries
1071 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1075 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1077 <p> Released Jan 1998
1080 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1082 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1083 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1085 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1086 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1090 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1091 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1092 file extension as the referenced file
1095 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1096 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1097 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1100 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1102 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1103 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1104 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1108 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1109 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1110 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1113 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1114 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1115 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1116 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1120 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1121 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1125 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1126 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1127 reasonable default configuration
1130 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1131 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1132 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1135 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1137 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1138 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1140 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1141 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1145 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1146 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1151 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1153 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1156 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1157 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1158 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1161 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1162 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1165 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1168 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1170 <p> Released July 1997.
1173 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1176 where <arch> is one of the following:
1177 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1180 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1182 <item>user ID's</item>
1184 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1186 <item>cron jobs</item>
1188 <item>device files</item>
1190 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1192 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1195 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1197 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1200 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1203 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1205 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1207 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1209 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1213 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1215 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1218 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1221 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1223 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1226 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1228 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1229 without consultation </item>
1231 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1234 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1236 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1239 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>