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>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
48 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
49 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
50 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
54 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
55 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
56 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
57 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
58 question, but should avoid this if possible.
61 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
63 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
64 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
65 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
68 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
69 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
70 It should instead be included directly
71 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
72 common-licenses for the time being.
75 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
76 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
77 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
78 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
79 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
82 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
83 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
84 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
88 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
95 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
96 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
97 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
100 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
101 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
104 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
105 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
109 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
115 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
116 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
119 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
120 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
121 may be used in different versions of the field.
124 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
125 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
128 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
131 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
132 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
133 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
134 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
137 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
138 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
139 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
142 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
143 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
146 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
147 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
148 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
152 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
153 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
154 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
155 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
156 support partial upgrades.
159 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
160 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
164 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
171 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
172 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
173 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
174 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
178 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
179 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
180 back on other methods.
183 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
187 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
188 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
191 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
192 <file>/var/mail</file>.
195 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
199 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
200 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
204 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
211 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
212 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
213 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
216 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
219 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
223 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
224 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
227 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
228 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
231 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
234 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
235 preceding whitespace.
238 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
239 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
240 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
241 behavior of the init system in Debian.
244 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
245 start the daemon again if it's already running.
248 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
249 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
250 subdirectories dynamically.
253 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
254 variable arguments and supports assignment.
257 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
258 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
262 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
269 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
270 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
271 system is now defined by priority.
273 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
274 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
276 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
277 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
278 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
279 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
280 unknown flags be ignored.
282 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
283 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
284 processes if the package supports it
286 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
287 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
290 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
291 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
292 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
293 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
294 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
295 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
298 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
300 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
303 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
304 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
305 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
306 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
307 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
308 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
310 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
311 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
312 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
315 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
316 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
319 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
320 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
323 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
324 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
325 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
326 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
327 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
328 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
331 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
332 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
334 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
335 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
338 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
341 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
348 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
349 anything, even the end of a part.
351 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
352 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
355 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
356 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
358 <tag>menu policy</tag>
359 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
360 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
361 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
362 sections would be more appropriate.
364 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
367 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
368 critical, or emergency.
370 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
371 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
372 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
375 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
376 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
377 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
379 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
380 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
383 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
389 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
390 should to a must)</item>
393 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
399 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
402 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
409 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
410 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
411 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
412 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
413 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
414 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
417 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
418 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
419 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
422 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
429 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
430 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
431 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
433 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
434 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
436 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
437 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
438 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
439 etc. may be of interest.
440 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
441 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
442 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
443 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
444 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
445 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
446 as well, to prepare for future changes.
448 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
449 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
450 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
453 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
454 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
456 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
457 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
458 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
459 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
463 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
470 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
473 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
474 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
475 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
478 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
479 allow packages to share image files with the web server
483 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
490 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
491 user prompts are now deprecated.
501 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
502 the minor version number:
504 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
505 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
506 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
507 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
508 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
509 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
510 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
511 deb-building tool-chain.
513 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
514 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
515 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
516 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
518 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
519 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
520 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
521 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
522 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
523 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
524 sections about changelog files.
525 <tag>menu policy</tag>
526 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
529 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
531 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
532 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
534 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
538 <sect> Version 3.5.10
545 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
546 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
549 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
550 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
553 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
560 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
561 full details of the long description format.
563 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
564 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
565 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
567 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
568 the init script should start the service.
570 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
571 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
572 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
575 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
582 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
583 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
584 documented in the changelog file.
586 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
587 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
589 <tag>menu policy</tag>
590 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
591 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
592 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
594 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
595 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
599 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
606 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
607 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
609 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
612 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
613 special Tasks: field in the control file.
615 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
616 they add themselves as an alternative for
617 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
619 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
620 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
621 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
622 environment variable.
624 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
625 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
626 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
627 review the new rules.
629 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
630 scripts. Long rationale.
634 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
635 rules, please see below
638 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
645 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
648 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
649 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
651 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
652 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
654 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
655 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
656 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
657 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
659 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
660 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
663 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
670 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
671 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
672 symlinks or .so pages to do this
675 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
676 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
677 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
680 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
681 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
684 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
685 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
688 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
691 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
694 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
698 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
700 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
701 fonts for the X Window System
704 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
707 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
708 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
711 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
712 OSF/Motif-linked ones
717 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
718 <p> Released Apr 2001.
722 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
723 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
724 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
727 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
728 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
729 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
734 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
735 <p> Released Apr 2001
739 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
740 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
743 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
744 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
745 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
746 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
750 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
752 <p> Released Feb 2001.
756 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
757 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
758 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
762 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
764 <p> Released Feb 2001.
768 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
769 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
773 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
775 <p> Released Jan 2001.
779 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
780 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
784 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
786 <p> Released Jan 2001.
790 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
791 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
792 <file>/etc/default/</file>
795 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
796 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
797 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
798 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
801 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
806 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
812 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
813 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
814 and the other without
818 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
824 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
825 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
826 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
829 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
830 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
831 should always be generated for the upstream changes
834 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
835 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
838 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
842 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
844 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
846 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
847 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
848 calculation guidelines)
851 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
853 <item>X application defaults </item>
857 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
861 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
863 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
864 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
869 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
871 <p> Released Nov 1999.
875 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
876 etc. Should not affect many packages
880 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
882 <p> Released Oct 1999.
886 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
887 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
891 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
893 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
894 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
895 but should use update-rc.d instead)
898 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
899 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
900 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
901 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
905 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
906 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
907 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
908 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
911 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
912 <file>/var/lib</file>
914 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
915 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
917 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
920 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
921 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
925 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
926 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
927 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
930 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
935 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
937 <p> Released Jul 1999.
941 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
942 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
943 files must go in the run-time library package
947 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
949 <p> Released Jun 1999.
953 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
954 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
958 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
959 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
962 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
963 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
964 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
968 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
969 include the .la files in the -dev packages
972 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
975 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
978 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
979 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
980 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
983 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
984 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
985 installed setgid utmp
989 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
992 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
994 <p> Released Oct 1998.
998 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1000 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1001 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1002 Section 5 and Section 6.
1004 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1005 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1006 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1007 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1008 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1012 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1013 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1014 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1015 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1017 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1018 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1020 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1021 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1023 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1024 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1026 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1031 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1033 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1035 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1037 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1038 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1039 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1040 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1043 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1044 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1045 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1049 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1051 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1052 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1053 installs shared libraries
1054 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1058 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1060 <p> Released Jan 1998
1063 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1065 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1066 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1068 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1069 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1073 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1074 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1075 file extension as the referenced file
1078 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1079 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1080 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1083 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1085 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1086 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1087 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1091 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1092 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1093 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1096 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1097 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1098 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1099 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1103 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1104 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1108 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1109 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1110 reasonable default configuration
1113 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1114 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1115 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1118 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1120 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1121 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1123 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1124 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1128 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1129 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1134 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1136 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1139 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1140 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1141 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1144 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1145 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1148 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1151 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1153 <p> Released July 1997.
1156 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1159 where <arch> is one of the following:
1160 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1163 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1165 <item>user ID's</item>
1167 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1169 <item>cron jobs</item>
1171 <item>device files</item>
1173 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1175 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1178 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1180 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1183 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1186 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1188 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1190 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1192 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1196 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1198 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1201 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1204 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1206 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1209 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1211 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1212 without consultation </item>
1214 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1217 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1219 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1222 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>