Created On : Thu Oct 29 20:54:48 1998
Created On Node : tiamat.datasync.com
Last Modified By : Manoj Srivastava
- Last Modified On : Sat Jun 7 15:11:50 2003
- Last Machine Used: glaurung.green-gryphon.com
- Update Count : 48
+ Last Modified On : Sat Jun 18 00:16:40 2005
+ Last Machine Used: glaurung.internal.golden-gryphon.com
+ Update Count : 51
Status : Unknown, Use with caution!
HISTORY :
Description :
<h2>The checklist</h2>
<pre>
+3.7.4.0 unreleased
+
+ * 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 convience 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]
+ * 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]
+ * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
+ configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
+ directory. [9.5]
+ * 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]
+
+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
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 behaviour of the
- deb-building toolchain.
+ 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
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 subpolicy
+ - 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
- 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
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
- There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
-
3.5.5.0 May 2001
- Manpages should not rely on header information to have
* 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
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
symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/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
- 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
always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
order be correct [8]
-
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/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
- 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