Merge branch 'master' into bug555977-rra

[debian/debian-policy.git] / policy.sgml

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 7f5ce9ede524847cdedea107aa296ff39637154b..945140505bc02106fd7c61323b6f991915e72e9f 100644 (file)
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -476,11 +476,9 @@
              <item>
                  must not require a package outside of <em>main</em>
                  for compilation or execution (thus, the package must
-                 not declare a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>, <tt>Depends</tt>,
-                 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends</tt>,
-                 or <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt> relationship on a
-                 non-<em>main</em> package unless a package
-                 in <em>main</em> is listed as an alternative),
+                 not declare a "Depends", "Recommends", or
+                 "Build-Depends" relationship on a non-<em>main</em>
+                 package),
              </item>
              <item>
                  must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,
@@ -880,36 +878,30 @@
 
          <p>
            In general, Debian packages should use the same version
-           numbers as the upstream sources.
-         </p>
-
-         <p>
-           However, in some cases where the upstream version number is
-           based on a date (e.g., a development "snapshot" release) the
-           package management system cannot handle these version
-           numbers without epochs. For example, dpkg will consider
-           "96May01" to be greater than "96Dec24".
+           numbers as the upstream sources.  However, upstream version
+           numbers based on some date formats (sometimes used for
+           development or "snapshot" releases) will not be ordered
+           correctly by the package management software.  For
+           example, <prng>dpkg</prng> will consider "96May01" to be
+           greater than "96Dec24".
          </p>
 
          <p>
            To prevent having to use epochs for every new upstream
-           version, the date based portion of the version number
-           should be changed to the following format in such cases:
-           "19960501", "19961224". It is up to the maintainer whether
-           they want to bother the upstream maintainer to change
-           the version numbers upstream, too.
-         </p>
-
-         <p>
-           Note that other version formats based on dates which are
-           parsed correctly by the package management system should
-           <em>not</em> be changed.
+           version, the date-based portion of any upstream version number
+           should be given in a way that sorts correctly: four-digit year
+           first, followed by a two-digit numeric month, followed by a
+           two-digit numeric date, possibly with punctuation between the
+           components.
          </p>
 
          <p>
-           Native Debian packages (i.e., packages which have been
-           written especially for Debian) whose version numbers include
-           dates should always use the "YYYYMMDD" format.
+           Native Debian packages (i.e., packages which have been written
+           especially for Debian) whose version numbers include dates
+           should also follow these rules.  If punctuation is desired
+           between the date components, remember that hyphen (<tt>-</tt>)
+           cannot be used in native package versions.  Period
+           (<tt>.</tt>) is normally a good choice.
          </p>
        </sect1>
 
@@ -4830,6 +4822,15 @@ Build-Depends: foo [linux-any], bar [any-i386], baz [!linux-any]
          example, <ref id="binaries">.
        </p>
 
+       <p>
+         Neither <tt>Breaks</tt> nor <tt>Conflicts</tt> should be used
+         unless two packages cannot be installed at the same time or
+         installing them both causes one of them to be broken or
+         unusable.  Having similar functionality or performing the same
+         tasks as another package is not sufficient reason to
+         declare <tt>Breaks</tt> or <tt>Conflicts</tt> with that package.
+       </p>
+
        <p>
          A <tt>Conflicts</tt> entry may have an "earlier than" version
          clause if the reason for the conflict is corrected in a later
@@ -5074,7 +5075,7 @@ Replaces: mail-transport-agent
            <p>
              There is no Build-Depends-Arch; this role is essentially
              met with Build-Depends.  Anyone building the
-             <tt>build-indep</tt> and binary-indep<tt></tt> targets is
+             <tt>build-indep</tt> and <tt>binary-indep</tt> targets is
              assumed to be building the whole package, and therefore
              installation of all build dependencies is required.
            </p>
@@ -7278,10 +7279,10 @@ INSTALL = install -s # (or use strip on the files in debian/tmp)
           for C files) will need to be compiled twice, for the normal
           case. 
         </p>
+
        <p>
-         You must specify the gcc option <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>
-         when building a library (either static or shared) to make
-         the library compatible with LinuxThreads.
+         Libraries should be built with threading support and to be
+         thread-safe if the library supports this.
        </p>
 
         <p>
@@ -8351,11 +8352,13 @@ done
                <example compact="compact">
 /usr/lib/cgi-bin/<var>cgi-bin-name</var>
                </example>
-               and should be referred to as
+               or a subdirectory of that directory, and should be
+               referred to as
                <example compact="compact">
 http://localhost/cgi-bin/<var>cgi-bin-name</var>
                </example>
-
+               (possibly with a subdirectory name
+               before <var>cgi-bin-name</var>).
            </item>
 
            <item>