1 <!doctype debiandoc system>
5 <title> Policy checklist for upgrading your packages </title>
6 <author> Bill Allombert <email/ballombe@debian.org/ </author>
7 <author> Josip Rodin </author>
8 <author> Julian Gilbey </author>
9 <author> Russ Allbery <email/rra@debian.org/ </author>
10 <author> Manoj Srivastava <email/srivasta@debian.org/
12 <chapt> About the checklist
14 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
15 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
16 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
17 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
18 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
19 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
20 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
21 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
22 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
23 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
24 used below refer to the current version.
26 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
27 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
28 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
29 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
30 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
31 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
32 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
33 picking your way through this list.
37 <sect id="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
40 Released October, 2013.
44 <item>Control data fields must not start with the hyphen character
45 (<tt>-</tt>), to avoid potential confusions when parsing clearsigned control
46 data files that were not properly unescaped.
48 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
49 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
50 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
52 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
53 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
54 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
56 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
60 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
61 package control files.
64 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
68 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
71 <item>Packages should remove all obsolete configuration files without
72 local changes during upgrades. The <prgn>dpkg-maintscript-helper</prgn>
73 tool, available from the <package>dpkg</package> package since
74 <em>Wheezy</em>, can help with this.
77 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
78 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
79 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
82 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
83 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
86 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
87 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
88 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
91 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
94 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
97 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
100 Released August, 2012.
104 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
107 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
108 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
111 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
112 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
113 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
116 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
119 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
120 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
121 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
122 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
125 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
126 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
127 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
128 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
129 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
130 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
133 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
134 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
135 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
138 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
139 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
141 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
142 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
145 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
149 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
152 Released February, 2012.
156 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
157 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
160 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
161 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
162 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
165 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
166 list of architectures must be non-empty.
169 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
170 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
171 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
172 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
173 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
174 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
175 should be stored in a temporary file system.
178 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
179 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
180 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
184 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
185 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
186 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
187 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
188 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
191 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
194 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
195 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
198 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
199 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
200 they have been removed.
203 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
204 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
205 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
207 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
208 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
209 file" specification is included.
212 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
213 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
217 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
218 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
221 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
222 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
226 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
229 Released April, 2011.
233 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
234 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
238 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
239 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
240 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
241 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
244 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
245 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
246 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
250 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
251 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
252 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
253 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
257 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
260 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
261 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
262 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
263 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
267 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
268 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
269 dependencies are now a should not.
272 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
273 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
274 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
275 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
276 actions if their dependencies are not available.
279 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
280 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
283 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
284 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
285 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
286 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
287 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
290 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
291 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
292 POSIX-required interface.
296 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
303 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
304 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
308 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
309 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
310 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
313 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
314 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
315 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
318 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
319 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
320 architecture-independent.
323 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
324 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
325 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
328 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
329 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
330 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
331 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
334 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
337 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
338 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
339 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
342 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
343 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
346 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
347 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
348 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
349 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
350 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
351 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
352 their <file>.la</file> files.
355 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
356 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
357 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
358 thread-safe if the library supports this.
361 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
362 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
363 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
364 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
365 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
368 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
369 logrotate rules is now recommended.
372 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
373 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
375 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
376 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
377 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
378 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
379 for the corresponding manual page.
382 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
383 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
384 executables in those subdirectories.
387 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
388 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
393 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
399 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
400 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
401 Date control field is now precisely specified.
404 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
405 particular field name.
407 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
408 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
409 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
410 documented and recommended.
412 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
413 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
414 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
415 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
416 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
417 for <file>.changes</file> files.
420 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
424 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
427 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
428 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
429 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
430 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
434 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
435 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
436 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
437 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
438 question, but should avoid this if possible.
440 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
441 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
442 files between packages.
445 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
446 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
447 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
450 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
451 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
454 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
455 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
456 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
457 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
460 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
462 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
463 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
464 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
467 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
468 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
469 It should instead be included directly
470 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
471 common-licenses for the time being.
474 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
475 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
476 template instead of a string to allow translation.
479 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
480 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
481 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
482 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
483 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
486 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
487 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
488 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
492 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
499 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
500 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
501 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
504 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
505 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
508 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
509 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
513 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
519 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
520 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
523 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
524 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
525 may be used in different versions of the field.
528 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
529 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
532 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
535 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
536 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
537 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
538 using them should be built with RPATH.
541 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
542 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
543 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
544 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
547 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
548 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
551 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
552 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
553 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
557 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
558 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
559 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
560 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
561 support partial upgrades.
564 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
565 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
569 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
576 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
577 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
578 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
579 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
583 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
584 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
585 back on other methods.
588 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
592 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
593 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
596 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
597 <file>/var/mail</file>.
600 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
604 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
605 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
609 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
616 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
617 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
618 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
621 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
624 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
628 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
629 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
632 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
633 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
636 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
639 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
640 with no preceding whitespace.
643 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
644 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
645 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
646 behavior of the init system in Debian.
649 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
650 start the daemon again if it's already running.
653 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
654 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
655 subdirectories dynamically.
658 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
659 variable arguments and supports assignment.
662 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
663 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
667 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
674 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
675 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
676 system is now defined by priority.
678 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
679 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
681 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
682 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
683 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
684 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
685 unknown flags be ignored.
687 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
688 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
689 processes if the package supports it
691 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
692 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
695 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
696 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
697 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
698 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
699 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
700 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
703 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
705 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
708 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
709 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
710 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
711 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
712 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
713 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
715 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
716 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
717 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
720 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
721 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
724 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
725 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
728 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
729 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
730 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
731 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
732 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
733 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
736 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
737 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
739 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
740 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
743 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
746 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
753 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
754 anything, even the end of a part.
756 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
757 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
760 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
761 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
763 <tag>menu policy</tag>
764 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
765 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
766 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
767 sections would be more appropriate.
769 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
772 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
773 critical, or emergency.
775 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
776 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
777 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
780 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
781 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
782 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
784 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
785 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
788 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
794 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
795 should to a must)</item>
798 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
804 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
807 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
814 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
815 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
816 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
817 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
818 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
819 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
822 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
823 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
824 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
827 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
834 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
835 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
836 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
838 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
839 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
841 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
842 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
843 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
844 etc. may be of interest.
845 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
846 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
847 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
848 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
849 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
850 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
851 as well, to prepare for future changes.
853 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
854 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
855 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
858 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
859 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
861 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
862 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
863 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
864 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
868 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
875 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
878 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
879 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
880 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
883 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
884 allow packages to share image files with the web server
888 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
895 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
896 user prompts are now deprecated.
899 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
906 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
907 the minor version number:
909 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
910 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
911 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
912 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
913 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
914 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
915 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
916 deb-building tool-chain.
918 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
919 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
920 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
921 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
923 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
924 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
925 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
926 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
927 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
928 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
929 sections about changelog files.
930 <tag>menu policy</tag>
931 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
934 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
936 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
937 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
939 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
943 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
950 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
951 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
954 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
955 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
958 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
965 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
966 full details of the long description format.
968 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
969 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
970 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
972 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
973 the init script should start the service.
975 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
976 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
977 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
980 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
987 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
988 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
989 documented in the changelog file.
991 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
992 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
994 <tag>menu policy</tag>
995 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
996 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
997 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
999 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
1000 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
1004 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1011 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1012 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1014 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1017 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1018 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1020 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1021 they add themselves as an alternative for
1022 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1024 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1025 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1026 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1027 environment variable.
1029 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1030 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1031 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1032 review the new rules.
1034 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1035 scripts. Long rationale.
1039 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1040 rules, please see below
1043 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1050 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1053 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1054 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1056 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1057 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1059 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1060 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1061 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1062 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1064 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1065 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1068 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1075 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1076 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1077 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1080 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1081 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1082 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1085 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1086 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1089 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1090 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1093 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1096 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1099 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1103 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1105 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1106 fonts for the X Window System
1109 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1112 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1113 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1116 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1117 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1122 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1123 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1127 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1128 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1129 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1132 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1133 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1134 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1139 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1140 <p> Released Apr 2001
1144 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1145 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1148 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1149 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1150 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1151 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1155 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1157 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1161 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1162 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1163 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1167 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1169 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1173 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1174 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1178 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1180 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1184 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1185 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1189 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1191 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1195 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1196 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1197 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1200 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1201 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1202 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1203 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1206 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1211 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1213 <p> Released Aug 00.
1217 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1218 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1219 and the other without
1223 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1225 <p> Released Aug 00.
1229 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1230 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1231 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1234 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1235 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1236 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1239 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1240 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1243 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1247 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1249 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1251 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1252 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1253 calculation guidelines)
1256 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1258 <item>X application defaults </item>
1262 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1266 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1268 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1269 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1274 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1276 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1280 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1281 etc. Should not affect many packages
1285 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1287 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1291 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1292 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1296 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1298 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1299 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1300 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1303 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1304 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1305 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1306 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1310 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1311 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1312 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1313 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1316 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1317 <file>/var/lib</file>
1319 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1320 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1322 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1325 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1326 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1330 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1331 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1332 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1335 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1340 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1342 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1346 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1347 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1348 files must go in the run-time library package
1352 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1354 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1358 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1359 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1363 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1364 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1367 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1368 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1369 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1370 other major licenses
1373 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1374 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1377 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1380 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1383 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1384 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1385 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1388 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1389 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1390 installed setgid utmp
1394 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1397 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1399 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1403 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1405 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1406 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1407 Section 5 and Section 6.
1409 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1410 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1411 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1412 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1413 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1417 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1418 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1419 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1420 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1422 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1423 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1425 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1426 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1428 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1429 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1431 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1436 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1438 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1440 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1442 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1443 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1444 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1445 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1448 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1449 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1450 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1454 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1456 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1457 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1458 installs shared libraries
1459 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1463 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1465 <p> Released Jan 1998
1468 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1470 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1471 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1473 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1474 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1478 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1479 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1480 file extension as the referenced file
1483 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1484 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1485 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1488 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1490 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1491 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1492 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1496 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1497 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1498 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1501 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1502 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1503 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1504 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1508 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1509 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1513 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1514 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1515 reasonable default configuration
1518 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1519 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1520 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1523 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1525 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1526 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1528 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1529 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1533 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1534 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1539 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1541 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1544 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1545 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1546 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1549 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1550 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1553 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1556 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1558 <p> Released July 1997.
1561 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1564 where <arch> is one of the following:
1565 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1568 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1570 <item>user ID's</item>
1572 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1574 <item>cron jobs</item>
1576 <item>device files</item>
1578 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1580 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1583 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1585 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1588 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1591 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1593 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1595 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1597 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1601 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1603 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1606 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1609 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1611 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1614 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1616 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1617 without consultation </item>
1619 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1622 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1624 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1627 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>