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- upgrading-checklist.html
- Author : Manoj Srivastava ( srivasta@tiamat.datasync.com )
- 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 18 00:16:40 2005
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- HISTORY :
- Description :
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<h2>The checklist</h2>
<pre>
-3.7.4.0 unreleased
- * Debian packages should not use convience copies of code from other
+3.8.3.0 unreleased
+
+ * Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and recommend them
+ over GNU-style variables for that information. [4.9]
+ * 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. [5.6.8]
+ * The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned Depend and
+ Build-Depend on perl >= 5.6.0-16 has been removed. [perl]
+
+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
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)
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
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]
/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
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]
- 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
projects / debian / debian-policy.git / blobdiff