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>
-3.6.0 Jun 03
-
- - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Educational to menu subpolicy
+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
- build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
target. [7.6]
-3.5.10 May 03
+3.5.10 May 2003
- packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
-3.5.9.0 Mar 03
+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]
(rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
-3.5.8.0 Nov 02
+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
<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]
+ - 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 02
+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]
- 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, 4.9]
+ review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
- Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
scripts. Long rationale. [8]
- [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
build rules, please see below]
-3.5.6.0 Jul 01
+3.5.6.0 Jul 2001
- Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
standard packages [2.5]
there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
-3.5.5.0 May 01
+3.5.5.0 May 2001
- Manpages should not rely on header information to have
alternative manpage names available; it should only use
OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
-3.5.4.0 Apr 01
+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
[11.9; perl-policy]
-3.5.3.0 Apr 01
+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]
needed [10.7.3]
-3.5.2.0 Feb 01
+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 01
+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 01
+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 01
+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
order be correct [8]
-3.1.1.0 Nov 99
+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 99
+3.1.0.0 Oct 1999
- /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
/usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
added [3.2.1]
-3.0.1.0 Jul 99
+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 99
+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
/var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
-2.5.0.0 Oct 98
+** 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
- Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
HURD.
-2.4.1.0 Apr 98
+2.4.1.0 Apr 1998
Policy Manual:
- Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
installs shared libraries
(cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
-2.4.0.0 Jan 98
+2.4.0.0 Jan 1998
- Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
+ /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
+ 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 97
+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
* MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
-2.2.0.0 Jul 97
+2.2.0.0 Jul 1997
* added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
use
* app-defaults files may not be conffiles
-2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 97
+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
* Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
-2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 96
+2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
* Some changes WRT shared libraries
-2.1.1.0 Sep 96
+2.1.1.0 Sep 1996
* No hard links in source packages
* Shared libraries must be installed stripped
-2.1.0.0 Aug 96
+2.1.0.0 Aug 1996
* Upstream changelog must be installed too
</pre>