[debian/debian-policy.git] / upgrading-checklist.txt

             Policy checklist for upgrading your packages
             ============================================

Author: Bill Allombert, Josip Rodin, Julian Gilbey, Russ Allbery, and Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>
Date: 2009-09-13 01:40:59 CDT


About the checklist 
====================

The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
of old packages.  Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
need to make changes to your package in light of this.  If you have
doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
the Policy Manual itself.  All of the changes from version 3.0.0
onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
issue: [3.4] means section 3.4.  The section numbering changed when
the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
used below refer to the current version.

Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
field of the source package).  Then move upwards until the top and
check which of the items on the list might concern your package.  Note
which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
Manual for details.  If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
picking your way through this list.

The checklist 
==============

3.8.3.0 
--------

  Released Aug, 2009.
+ *4.9* : Add DEB_\*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_\*_ARCH_OS variables and
  recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
+ *5.6.8*: Source package Architecture fields may contain "all" in
  combination with other architectures.  Clarify when "all" and "any"
  may be used in different versions of the field.
5.6.14: The Debian archive software does not support uploading
  to multiple distributions with one \*.changes file.
[5.6.19]: The Binary field may span multiple lines. 
[10.2]: Remove the permission for shared library packages to
  install libraries in a non-standard location and modify ld.so.conf.
  Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
  or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
[11.8.7]: Clarify installation directories for X programs and
  remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
  into /usr/include/X11 and /usr/lib/X11.
[12.1]: Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
  page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
[12.1]: Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
  the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
  with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
  original language.
[12.2]: install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
  longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts.  Info documents
  should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
  Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
  support partial upgrades.
[perl]: The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
  Depend and Build-Depend on perl >= 5.6.0-16 has been removed.


3.8.2.0                        Jun 2009

     * The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded.  See
       [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html]
       for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
       packages.                                                 [2.4]
     * All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
       though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
       back on other methods.                                    [3.9.1]
     * The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
       spelled out.                                              [5.6.1]
     * Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
       FHS permitting /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.                     [9.1]
     * Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
       /var/mail.                                                [9.1.3]
     * Speedo fonts are now deprecated.  The X backend was disabled
       starting in lenny.                                        [11.8.5]
     * The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
       common-licenses and should be referenced from there.      [12.5]

3.8.1.0                        Mar 2009

     * Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
       such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
       in essential forever unless significant work is done.     [3.8]
     * Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.                 [4.4]
     * Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
       to a must.                                                [4.4]
     * Remove alternative changelog formats.  Debian only supports one
       changelog format for the Debian Archive.                  [4.4.1]
     * New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
       test suite provided by the package should not be run.     [4.9.1]
     * All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.               [5.1]
     * debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
       preceding whitespace.                                     [5.2]
     * Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially.  They are not
       sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
       the #! line.  This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
       behavior of the init system in Debian.                    [9.3]
     * The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
       start the daemon again if it's already running.           [9.3.2]
     * /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
       init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
       dynamically.                                              [9.3.2]
     * /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
       arguments and supports assignment.                        [10.4]
     * User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
       mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.                  [11.6]

3.8.0.0                        Jun 2008

     * The base section has been removed.  contrib and non-free have been
       removed from the section list; they are only categories.  The base
       system is now defined by priority.                        [2.4, 3.7]
     * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
       a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
       else is necessary.                                        [4.9]
     * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS.  Specified permitted
       characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
       allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
       unknown flags be ignored.                                 [4.9.1, 10.1]
     * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
       indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
       processes if the package supports it                      [4.9.1]
     * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
       packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
       used that way.                                            [4.13]
     * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
       building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
       debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
       source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
       modification.  This file may also be used to document packaging a
       new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
       process.                                                  [4.14]
     * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.     [5.6.3]
     * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
       a version number.                                         [5.6.12]
     * New Homepage field for upstream web sites.                [5.6.23]
     * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
       prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
       named in Breaks is deconfigured first.  This field should not be
       used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.         [6.5, 6.6, 7]
     * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
       separate package, or into the -dev package.  Suggest -tools instead
       of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
       common in Debian.                                         [8.1, 8.2]
     * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
       configuration files (upgraded from should).  Mention the hourly
       directory.                                                [9.5]
     * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
       xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete.            [11.8.6]
     * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
       legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8.  Country names should
       not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
       indicating a significant difference in the language.  All
       characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
       legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
       UTF-8.                                                    [12.1]
     * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
       referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.        [12.5]
     * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
       that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
       explain why.                                              [12.5]
     * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.      [debconf]

3.7.3.0                        Dec 2007

     * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
       anything, even the end of a part.                         [5.6.12]
     * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
       and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
       logical operators.                                        [10.4]
     * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
       of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
       library.                                                  [8.5]
     * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
       menu structure.  Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
       see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
       sections would be more appropriate.                       [menu policy]
     * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
       in parentheses.                                           [5.6.1]
     * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
       critical, or emergency.                                   [5.6.17]
     * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
       type of package for which the line is valid.  The only currently
       supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
       Installer.                                                [8.6]
     * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
       specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
       a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.                [3.9.1]
     * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
       be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.     [12.5]

3.7.2.2                        Oct 2006

     * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
       should to a must)                                         [6.1]

3.7.2.0                        Apr 2006

     * Revert the cgi-lib change.                                [11.5]

3.7.1.0                        Apr 2006

     * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
       relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
       provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
       libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
       Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
       consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
       of the process.                                           [10.2]    
     * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
       /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
       must  pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)              [11.8.7] 

3.7.0.0                        Apr 2006

     * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
       them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories.  This location change
       perhaps should be documented in NEWS                      [11.5]
     * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
       cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib.                              [11.5]
     * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
       2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
       though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
       interest.                                                 [9.1.1]
     * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
       are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
       over multiple physical  lines (newline followed by space is
       elided).  However, any parser for the control file must allow
       the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
       as well, to prepare for future changes.                 [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
     * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
       PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
       denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
                                                              [ 10.4 ]
     * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
       so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
       constraints.                                                [ 9.3.3.2 ]
     * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
       using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
       /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
                                                      [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]

3.6.2.0                        2005

     * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
     * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
       /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
       the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
     * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
       allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]

3.6.1.0                    Aug 2003

     + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
       user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]

3.6.0                      Jul 2003

     - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
       the minor version number:
     + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
       sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
       In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
       fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
       and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
       is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
       optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
       deb-building tool-chain.
     + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
       chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
       Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
       properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
     + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
       with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
       everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
       Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
       talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
       and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
       sections about changelog files.
     - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
       [menu policy]
     - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
     - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
       use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
     - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
       target. [7.6] 

3.5.10                     May 2003

     - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
       ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
       like xterm does. [11.8.3]
     - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
       Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]

3.5.9.0                    Mar 2003

     - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
       full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
     - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
       build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
       and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
     - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
       the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
     - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
       example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
       (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]

3.5.8.0                    Nov 2002

     - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
       sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
       documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
     - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>,  <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
       <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
       <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
       clean target is called. [7.6]
     - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
     - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
       policy]
     - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
       manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
       are still a bug. [12.1]

3.5.7.0                    Aug 2002

     - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
       postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
     - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
       archive. [2.2.4]
     - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
       special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
     - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
       they add themselves as an alternative for
       /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
     - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
       provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
       back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
       environment variable. [10.1]
     - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
       the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
       `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
       review the new rules.  [7.6, 4.8]
     - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
       scripts. Long rationale. [1]
     - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
       build rules, please see below]

3.5.6.0                    Jul 2001

     - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
       standard packages [2.5]
     - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
       not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
     - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
       a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
     - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
       /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
       the [http://localhost/doc/] directory, then it is preferred that one
       ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
     - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
       there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [2]

3.5.5.0                    May 2001

     - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
       alternative manpage names available; it should only use
       symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
     - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
        examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
        by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
     - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
       dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
     - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
       packages just to change the Standards-Version!
     - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
       libraries [10.2]
     - X Windows related things:
       * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
         packages [11.8.1]
       * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
       * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
         fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
       * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
       * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
         locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
       * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
         OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]

3.5.4.0                    Apr 2001

     - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
       /var/spool/mail.  Any packages accessing the mail spool should
       access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
       details in [11.6]
     - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
       programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
       [11.9; perl-policy]

3.5.3.0                    Apr 2001

     - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
       ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
     - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
       in /usr/share/&lt;package&gt; or /usr/lib/&lt;package&gt;, with
       symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples as
       needed [10.7.3]

3.5.2.0                    Feb 2001

     - X app-defaults directory has moved from
       /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]

3.5.1.0                    Feb 2001

     - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
       run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]

3.5.0.0                    Jan 2001

     - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
       dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]

3.2.1.1                    Jan 2001

     - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
       modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
       /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
     - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
       program.  If such files are needed, they must be placed in
       /usr/share/&lt;package&gt;/, and symbolic links created as required
       in /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/ [12.3]
     - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
       policy document

3.2.1.0                    Aug 00

     - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
       binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
       and the other without [11.8.1]

3.2.0.0                    Aug 00

     - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
       option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
       package with debugging information optionally.  Details in [10.1]
     - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
       files has been expanded.  In short, a plain text changelog file
       should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
     - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
       shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
     - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
       has been codified:
       - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
       - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
       - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
         /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
         calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
       - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
       - X application defaults [11.8.6]
     - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
       has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
     - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
     - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
       always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
       order be correct [1]

3.1.1.0                    Nov 1999

     - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
       etc.  Should not affect many packages [7.1]

3.1.0.0                    Oct 1999

     - /usr/doc/&lt;package&gt; has to be a symlink pointing to
       /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;, to be maintained by postinst
       and prerm scripts.  Details are in [defunct]
     - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
     - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
       (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
       update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
     - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
       /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links.  Any scripts which manipulate them
       directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead.  (This is
       because the file-rc package handles this information in an
       incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
     - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/&lt;package&gt;/examples
       with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples/* or from
       /usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples itself [12.7]
     - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
       /var/lib [9.1.1]
     - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
     - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
     - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
       mailbox-accessing programs.  Please see the policy document for
       details [11.6]
     - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
       version should also be included.  (Such a version may be prepared
       using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
     - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
       added [3.2.1]

3.0.1.0                    Jul 1999

    -  Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
       packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
       .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]

3.0.0.0                    Jun 1999

    - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
      major change, and the implications of this move are probably
      not all known. [9.1]
    - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
      control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
    - The location of the GPL has changed to
      /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
      copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
      other major licenses [12.6]
    - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
      include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
    - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
    - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
      System) [now 11.8]
    - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
      that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
    - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
      /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]


Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date ** 
===========================================================================


2.5.0.0                         Oct 1998

  Policy Manual:
    - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
      + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
        that  were Section 4 and Section 5 were  moved down to become
        Section 5 and Section 6.
      + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
        new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
        "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
        and owners") to Section 4.9.  All subsections of the old
        Section 5 after 5.5  were moved down to fill in the number
        gap.
    - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
      upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
      upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
      /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
      + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
        changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
    - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
      package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
    - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
      files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
    - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
      HURD.

2.4.1.0                         Apr 1998

  Policy Manual:
    - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
      + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
        symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
        (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)

    - Updated section 4.9 Games:
      + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
        (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)

  Packaging Manual:
    - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
      ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
      installs shared libraries
      (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)

2.4.0.0                         Jan 1998

    - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
      + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
      + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
        interpreter
      + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
        (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
        the directory

    - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
      + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
        file extension as the referenced file

    - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
      + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*

    - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
      + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
        start, stop, restart, force-reload
      + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
        the service

    - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
      + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
        be installed into /etc/cron.d

    - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
      + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
        (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
        has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
        obsolete)

    - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
      + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
        handled

    - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
      + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
        reasonable default configuration

    - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
      + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
        by all news servers and clients

    - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
      + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
        as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
      + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
        against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library

    - Updated section 4.9 Games:
      + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
        non-X games

2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0                Sep 1997

        * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
          /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf

        * updated section about `Configuration files':
          packages may not touch other packages' configuration files

        * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile

2.2.0.0                         Jul 1997

        * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
          use
               &lt;arch&gt;-linux
          where &lt;arch&gt; is one of the following:
               i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.

        * detailed rules for /usr/local

        * user ID's

        * editor/pager policy

        * cron jobs

        * device files

        * don't install shared libraries as executable

        * app-defaults files may not be conffiles

2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0       Mar 1997

        * two programs with different functionality must not have the
          same name

        * "Webstandard 3.0"

        * "Standard for Console Messages"

        * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'

        * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"

2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0       Nov 1996

        * Some changes WRT shared libraries

2.1.1.0                         Sep 1996

        * No hard links in source packages

        * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation

        * Shared libraries must be installed stripped

2.1.0.0                         Aug 1996

        * Upstream changelog must be installed too

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