1 Policy checklist for upgrading your packages
2 ============================================
4 Author: Bill Allombert, Josip Rodin, Julian Gilbey, Russ Allbery, and Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>
5 Date: 2009-11-20 16:47:07 CST
11 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
12 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
13 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
14 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
15 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
16 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
17 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
18 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
19 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
20 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
21 used below refer to the current version.
23 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
24 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
25 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
26 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
27 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
28 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
29 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
30 picking your way through this list.
40 + *9.1.1* : An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
41 Permitting files to instead be installed to `/lib/triplet' and
42 `/usr/lib/triplet' directories.
43 + *10.6* : Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
44 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
45 + *9.1.1* : /sys and /selinux directories are explicitly allowed as an
53 + *4.9* : Add DEB\_*\_ARCH\_CPU and DEB\_*\_ARCH\_OS variables and
54 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
55 + *5.6.8*: Source package Architecture fields may contain /all/ in
56 combination with other architectures. Clarify when /all/ and /any/
57 may be used in different versions of the field.
58 + *5.6.14* : The Debian archive software does not support uploading
59 to multiple distributions with one \*.changes file.
60 + *5.6.19* : The Binary field may span multiple lines.
61 + *10.2* : Remove the permission for shared library packages to
62 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify ld.so.conf.
63 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
64 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
65 + *11.8.7* : Clarify installation directories for X programs and
66 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
67 into /usr/include/X11 and /usr/lib/X11.
68 + *12.1* : Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
69 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
70 + *12.1* : Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
71 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
72 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
74 + *12.2* : install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
75 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
76 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
77 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
78 support partial upgrades.
79 + *perl* : The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
80 Depend and Build-Depend on perl >= 5.6.0-16 has been removed.
87 + *2.4*: The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
88 [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html]
89 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
91 + *3.9.1*: All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
92 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
93 back on other methods.
94 + *5.6.1*: The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
96 + *9.1*: Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
97 FHS permitting /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
98 + *9.1.3*: Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
100 + *11.8.5*: Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
102 + *12.5*: The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
103 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
110 + *3.8*: Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
111 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
112 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
113 + *4.4*: Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
114 + *4.4*: Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
116 + *4.4.1*: Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
117 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
118 + *4.9.1*: New nocheck option for DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
119 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
120 + *5.1*: All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
121 + *5.2*: debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
122 preceding whitespace.
123 + *9.3*: Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
124 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
125 the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
126 behavior of the init system in Debian.
127 + *9.3.2*: The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
128 start the daemon again if it's already running.
129 + *9.3.2*: /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
130 init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
132 + *10.4*: /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
133 arguments and supports assignment.
134 + *11.6*: User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
135 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
142 + *2.4, 3.7*: The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
143 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
144 system is now defined by priority.
145 + *4.9*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
146 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
148 + *4.9.1, 10.1*: Standardized the format of DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
149 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
150 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
151 unknown flags be ignored.
152 + *4.9.1*: Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS tags,
153 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
154 processes if the package supports it
155 + *4.13*: Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
156 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
158 + *4.14*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
159 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
160 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
161 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
162 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
163 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
165 + *5.6.3*: The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
166 + *5.6.12*: An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
168 + *5.6.23*: New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
169 + *6.5, 6.6, 7*: The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
170 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
171 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
172 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
173 + *8.1, 8.2*: Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
174 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
175 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
177 + *9.5*: Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
178 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
180 + *11.8.6*: Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
181 xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete.
182 + *12.1*: Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
183 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
184 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
185 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
186 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
187 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
189 + *12.5*: The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
190 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
191 + *12.5*: Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
192 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
194 + *debconf*: Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
201 + *5.6.12*: Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
202 anything, even the end of a part.
203 + *10.4*: Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
204 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
206 + *8.5*: The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
207 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
209 + *menu policy*: Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
210 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
211 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
212 sections would be more appropriate.
213 + *5.6.1*: The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
215 + *5.6.17*: The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
216 critical, or emergency.
217 + *8.6*: The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
218 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
219 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
221 + *3.9.1*: Packages following the Debian Configuration management
222 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
223 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
224 + *12.5*: GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
225 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
232 + *6.1*: Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
240 + *11.5*: Revert the cgi-lib change.
247 + *10.2*: It is now possible to create shared libraries without
248 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
249 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
250 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
251 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
252 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
254 + *11.8.7*: Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
255 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
256 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
263 + *11.5*: Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
264 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
265 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
266 + *11.5*: Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
267 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib.
268 + *9.1.1*: The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
269 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
270 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
272 + *5.1, 5.6.3*: All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
273 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
274 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
275 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
276 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
277 as well, to prepare for future changes.
278 + *10.4*: When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
279 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
280 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
282 + *9.3.3.2*: packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
283 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
285 + *11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc*: We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have
286 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
287 live in /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
295 + Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
296 + *8.1*: Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
297 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
298 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
299 + *11.5*: It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
300 allow packages to share image files with the web server
307 + *3.10.1*: Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
308 user prompts are now deprecated.
315 + Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
316 the minor version number:
317 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
318 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
319 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
320 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
321 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
322 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
323 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
324 deb-building tool-chain.
325 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
326 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
327 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
328 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
329 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
330 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
331 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
332 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
333 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
334 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
335 sections about changelog files.
336 + *menu policy*: Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
338 + *C.2.2*: Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
339 + *10.2*: shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
340 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
341 + *7.6*: build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
349 + *11.8.3*: packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
350 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
352 + *11.8.4*: Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
353 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
360 + *3.4.2*: The section describing the Description: package field once again has
361 full details of the long description format.
362 + *4.2*: Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
363 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
364 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
365 + *9.3.2*: When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
366 the init script should start the service.
367 + *12.6*: If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
368 example files can be installed into `/usr/share/doc/package' (rather
369 than `/usr/share/doc/package/examples').
376 + *12.7*: It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
377 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
378 documented in the changelog file.
379 + *7.6*: `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts', `Build-Depends-Indep',
380 and `Build-Conflicts-Indep' must also be satisfied when the clean
382 + *menu policy*: A new Apps/Science menu section is available
383 + *debconf policy*: debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
384 + *12.1*: It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
385 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
393 + Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
394 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
395 + *2.2.4*: cryptographic software may now be included in the main
397 + *3.9*: task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
398 special Tasks: field in the control file.
399 + *11.8.4*: window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
400 they add themselves as an alternative for
401 /usr/bin/x-window-manager
402 + *10.1*: The default compilation options have now changed, one should
403 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
404 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS
405 environment variable.
406 + *7.6, 4.8*: Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
407 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
408 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
409 review the new rules.
410 + *8*: Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
411 scripts. Long rationale.
413 *Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build rules, please see below*
420 + *2.5*: Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
422 + *11.5*: Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
423 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously
424 + *12.3*: Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
425 a ``serious'' policy violation.
426 + *11.5*: For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
427 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
428 the [http://localhost/doc/] directory, then it is preferred that one
429 ask permission to expose that information during the install.
430 + *7*: There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
431 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
438 + *12.1*: Manpages should not rely on header information to have
439 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
440 symlinks or .so pages to do this
441 + *Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
442 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
443 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story*
444 + Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
445 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
446 + Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
447 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
448 + *10.2*: Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
450 + X Windows related things:
451 * *11.8.1*: Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
453 * *11.8.3*: Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved
454 * *11.8.5*: X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
455 fonts for the X Window System
456 * *11.8.6*: Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/
457 * *11.8.7*: X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
458 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
459 * *11.8.8*: OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
460 OSF/Motif-linked ones
467 + *11.6*: The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
468 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
469 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
471 + *11.9; perl-policy*: The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
472 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
481 + *7.1*: Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
482 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
483 + *10.7.3*: Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
484 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
485 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
493 + *11.8.6*: X app-defaults directory has moved from
494 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults
501 + *8.1*: dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
502 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
509 + *11.8.5*: Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
510 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
517 + Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
518 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
519 /etc/default/; see *9.3.2] for details
520 + *12.3*: Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
521 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
522 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
523 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/
524 + Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
532 + *11.8.1*: A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
533 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
534 and the other without
541 + *10.1*: By default executables should not be built with the debugging
542 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
543 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
544 + *12.8*: Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
545 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
546 should always be generated for the upstream changes
547 + Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
548 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
549 + Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
551 - *11.8.2*: X server (virtual package xserver)
552 - *11.8.3*: X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
553 - *11.8.4*: X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
554 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
555 calculation guidelines)
556 - *12.8.5*: X fonts (this section has been written from scratch)
557 - *11.8.6*: X application defaults
558 + *11.8.7*: Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
559 has been clarified; see
560 + *11.7.3*: No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles
561 + *8*: Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
562 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
570 + *7.1*: Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
571 etc. Should not affect many packages
578 + /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
579 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
580 and prerm scripts. Details are in *defunct*
581 + *7.1, 7.6*: Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.)
582 + *9.3.4*: /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
583 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
585 + *9.3.3*: update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
586 /etc/rc?.d/*SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
587 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
588 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
590 + *12.7*: Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
591 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
592 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself
593 + *9.1.1*: Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
595 + *9.7; mime-policy*: Added MIME sub-policy document
596 + *12.4*: VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
597 + *11.6*: Modified liblockfile description, which affects
598 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
600 + *12.7*: If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
601 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
602 using lynx -dump -nolist.)
603 + *3.2.1*: Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
611 + *10.2*: Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
612 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
613 files must go in the run-time library package
620 + *9.1*: Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
621 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
623 + *4.1*: Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
624 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
625 + *12.6*: The location of the GPL has changed to
626 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
627 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
629 + *10.2*: Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
630 include the .la files in the -dev packages
631 + *10.8*: Use logrotate to rotate log files
632 + *now 11.8*: section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
634 + *9.6; menu-policy*: There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
635 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
636 + *11.3*: Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
637 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp
640 *Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date*
649 + Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
650 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
651 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
652 Section 5 and Section 6.
653 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
654 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
655 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
656 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
657 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
659 + Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
660 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
661 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
662 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
663 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
664 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
665 + Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
666 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
667 + Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
668 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
669 + Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
678 + Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
679 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
680 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
681 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
683 + Updated section 4.9 Games:
684 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
685 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
688 + Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
689 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
690 installs shared libraries
691 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
699 + Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
700 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
701 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
703 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
704 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
707 + Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
708 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
709 file extension as the referenced file
711 + Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
712 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
714 + Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in /etc/init.d:
715 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
716 start, stop, restart, force-reload
717 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
720 + Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
721 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
722 be installed into /etc/cron.d
724 + Updated section 3.7 Menus:
725 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
726 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
727 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
730 + New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
731 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
734 + New section 3.9 Environment variables:
735 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
736 reasonable default configuration
738 + New section 4.6 News system configuration:
739 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
740 by all news servers and clients
742 + Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
743 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
744 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
745 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
746 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
748 + Updated section 4.9 Games:
749 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
757 + new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
758 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
760 + updated section about `Configuration files':
761 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
763 + MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
770 + added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
773 where <arch> is one of the following:
774 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
776 + detailed rules for /usr/local
780 + editor/pager policy
786 + don't install shared libraries as executable
788 + app-defaults files may not be conffiles
790 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
791 --------------------------
795 + two programs with different functionality must not have the
800 + "Standard for Console Messages"
802 + Libraries should be compiled with `-D\_REENTRANT'
804 + Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
806 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
807 --------------------------
811 + Some changes WRT shared libraries
818 + No hard links in source packages
820 + Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
822 + Shared libraries must be installed stripped
829 + Upstream changelog must be installed too