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><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
79 files between packages.
82 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
83 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
84 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
87 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
88 of a virtual facility can ge installed at a time.
91 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
92 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
93 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
94 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
97 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
99 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
100 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
101 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
104 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
105 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
106 It should instead be included directly
107 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
108 common-licenses for the time being.
111 <item>Add <tt>SETTITLE</tt> (which has been supported for some time).
112 Like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a template instead of a string to allow
116 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
117 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
118 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
119 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
120 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
123 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
124 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
125 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
129 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
136 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
137 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
138 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
141 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
142 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
145 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
146 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
150 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
156 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
157 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
160 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
161 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
162 may be used in different versions of the field.
165 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
166 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
169 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
172 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
173 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
174 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
175 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
178 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
179 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
180 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
183 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
184 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
187 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
188 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
189 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
193 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
194 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
195 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
196 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
197 support partial upgrades.
200 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
201 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
205 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
212 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
213 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
214 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
215 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
219 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
220 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
221 back on other methods.
224 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
228 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
229 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
232 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
233 <file>/var/mail</file>.
236 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
240 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
241 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
245 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
252 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
253 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
254 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
257 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
260 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
264 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
265 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
268 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
269 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
272 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
275 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
276 preceding whitespace.
279 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
280 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
281 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
282 behavior of the init system in Debian.
285 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
286 start the daemon again if it's already running.
289 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
290 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
291 subdirectories dynamically.
294 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
295 variable arguments and supports assignment.
298 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
299 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
303 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
310 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
311 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
312 system is now defined by priority.
314 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
315 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
317 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
318 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
319 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
320 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
321 unknown flags be ignored.
323 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
324 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
325 processes if the package supports it
327 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
328 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
331 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
332 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
333 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
334 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
335 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
336 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
339 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
341 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
344 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
345 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
346 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
347 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
348 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
349 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
351 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
352 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
353 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
356 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
357 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
360 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
361 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
364 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
365 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
366 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
367 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
368 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
369 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
372 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
373 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
375 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
376 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
379 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
382 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
389 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
390 anything, even the end of a part.
392 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
393 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
396 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
397 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
399 <tag>menu policy</tag>
400 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
401 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
402 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
403 sections would be more appropriate.
405 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
408 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
409 critical, or emergency.
411 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
412 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
413 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
416 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
417 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
418 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
420 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
421 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
424 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
430 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
431 should to a must)</item>
434 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
440 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
443 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
450 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
451 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
452 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
453 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
454 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
455 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
458 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
459 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
460 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
463 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
470 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
471 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
472 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
474 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
475 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
477 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
478 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
479 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
480 etc. may be of interest.
481 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
482 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
483 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
484 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
485 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
486 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
487 as well, to prepare for future changes.
489 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
490 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
491 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
494 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
495 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
497 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
498 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
499 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
500 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
504 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
511 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
514 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
515 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
516 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
519 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
520 allow packages to share image files with the web server
524 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
531 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
532 user prompts are now deprecated.
542 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
543 the minor version number:
545 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
546 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
547 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
548 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
549 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
550 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
551 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
552 deb-building tool-chain.
554 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
555 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
556 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
557 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
559 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
560 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
561 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
562 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
563 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
564 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
565 sections about changelog files.
566 <tag>menu policy</tag>
567 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
570 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
572 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
573 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
575 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
579 <sect> Version 3.5.10
586 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
587 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
590 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
591 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
594 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
601 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
602 full details of the long description format.
604 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
605 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
606 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
608 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
609 the init script should start the service.
611 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
612 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
613 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
616 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
623 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
624 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
625 documented in the changelog file.
627 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
628 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
630 <tag>menu policy</tag>
631 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
632 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
633 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
635 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
636 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
640 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
647 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
648 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
650 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
653 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
654 special Tasks: field in the control file.
656 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
657 they add themselves as an alternative for
658 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
660 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
661 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
662 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
663 environment variable.
665 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
666 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
667 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
668 review the new rules.
670 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
671 scripts. Long rationale.
675 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
676 rules, please see below
679 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
686 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
689 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
690 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
692 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
693 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
695 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
696 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
697 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
698 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
700 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
701 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
704 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
711 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
712 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
713 symlinks or .so pages to do this
716 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
717 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
718 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
721 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
722 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
725 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
726 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
729 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
732 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
735 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
739 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
741 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
742 fonts for the X Window System
745 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
748 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
749 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
752 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
753 OSF/Motif-linked ones
758 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
759 <p> Released Apr 2001.
763 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
764 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
765 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
768 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
769 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
770 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
775 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
776 <p> Released Apr 2001
780 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
781 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
784 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
785 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
786 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
787 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
791 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
793 <p> Released Feb 2001.
797 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
798 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
799 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
803 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
805 <p> Released Feb 2001.
809 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
810 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
814 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
816 <p> Released Jan 2001.
820 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
821 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
825 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
827 <p> Released Jan 2001.
831 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
832 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
833 <file>/etc/default/</file>
836 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
837 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
838 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
839 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
842 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
847 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
853 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
854 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
855 and the other without
859 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
865 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
866 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
867 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
870 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
871 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
872 should always be generated for the upstream changes
875 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
876 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
879 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
883 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
885 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
887 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
888 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
889 calculation guidelines)
892 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
894 <item>X application defaults </item>
898 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
902 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
904 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
905 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
910 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
912 <p> Released Nov 1999.
916 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
917 etc. Should not affect many packages
921 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
923 <p> Released Oct 1999.
927 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
928 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
932 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
934 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
935 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
936 but should use update-rc.d instead)
939 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
940 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
941 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
942 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
946 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
947 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
948 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
949 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
952 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
953 <file>/var/lib</file>
955 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
956 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
958 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
961 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
962 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
966 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
967 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
968 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
971 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
976 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
978 <p> Released Jul 1999.
982 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
983 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
984 files must go in the run-time library package
988 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
990 <p> Released Jun 1999.
994 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
995 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
999 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1000 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1003 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1004 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1005 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1006 other major licenses
1009 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1010 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1013 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1016 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1019 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1020 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1021 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1024 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1025 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1026 installed setgid utmp
1030 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1033 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
1035 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1039 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1041 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1042 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1043 Section 5 and Section 6.
1045 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1046 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1047 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1048 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1049 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1053 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1054 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1055 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1056 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1058 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1059 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1061 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1062 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1064 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1065 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1067 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1072 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1074 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1076 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1078 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1079 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1080 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1081 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1084 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1085 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1086 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1090 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1092 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1093 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1094 installs shared libraries
1095 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1099 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1101 <p> Released Jan 1998
1104 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1106 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1107 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1109 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1110 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1114 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1115 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1116 file extension as the referenced file
1119 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1120 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1121 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1124 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1126 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1127 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1128 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1132 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1133 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1134 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1137 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1138 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1139 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1140 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1144 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1145 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1149 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1150 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1151 reasonable default configuration
1154 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1155 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1156 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1159 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1161 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1162 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1164 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1165 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1169 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1170 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1175 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1177 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1180 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1181 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1182 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1185 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1186 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1189 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1192 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1194 <p> Released July 1997.
1197 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1200 where <arch> is one of the following:
1201 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1204 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1206 <item>user ID's</item>
1208 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1210 <item>cron jobs</item>
1212 <item>device files</item>
1214 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1216 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1219 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1221 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1224 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1227 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1229 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1231 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1233 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1237 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1239 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1242 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1245 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1247 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1250 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1252 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1253 without consultation </item>
1255 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1258 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1260 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1263 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>