X-Git-Url: https://git.donarmstrong.com/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=policy.sgml;h=8100da082bd123ab85cf97a6788b5cd656b99cb4;hb=6d5f4e0d2c088969b86863cdd0033c917054c207;hp=3c63507b90a7c7eaefb67d8703e9241cd6deb01d;hpb=0b42bb3a5a763f110f2e7f2b8670eaef61944a57;p=debian%2Fdebian-policy.git
diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 3c63507..8100da0 100644
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as
-
This manual describes the policy requirements for the Debian
- GNU/Linux distribution. This includes the structure and
+ distribution. This includes the structure and
contents of the Debian archive and several design issues of the
operating system, as well as technical requirements that
each package must satisfy to be included in the
@@ -218,12 +218,13 @@
The actual editing is done by a group of maintainers that have
no editorial powers. These are the current maintainers:
-
@@ -257,7 +258,6 @@
- The Debian GNU/Linux system is maintained and distributed as a
+ The Debian system is maintained and distributed as a
collection of packages. Since there are so many of
them (currently well over 15000), they are split into
sections and given priorities to simplify
@@ -348,8 +348,7 @@
- The main archive area forms the Debian GNU/Linux
- distribution.
+ The main archive area forms the Debian distribution.
@@ -465,6 +464,20 @@
+ The main archive area comprises the Debian
+ distribution. Only the packages in this area are considered
+ part of the distribution. None of the packages in
+ the main archive area require software outside of
+ that area to function. Anyone may use, share, modify and
+ redistribute the packages in this archive area
+ freely
Every package in main must comply with the DFSG
(Debian Free Software Guidelines).
@@ -474,11 +487,11 @@
In addition, the packages in main
+ The contrib archive area contains supplemental
+ packages intended to work with the Debian distribution, but
+ which require software outside of the distribution to either
+ build or function.
+
Every package in contrib must comply with the DFSG.
Examples of packages which would be included in
contrib are:
@@ -536,6 +555,15 @@
+ The non-free archive area contains supplemental
+ packages intended to work with the Debian distribution that do
+ not comply with the DFSG or have other problems that make
+ their distribution problematic. They may not comply with all
+ of the policy requirements in this manual due to restrictions
+ on modifications or other limitations.
+
Packages must be placed in non-free if they are
not compliant with the DFSG or are encumbered by patents
@@ -680,12 +708,13 @@
list of sections. At present, they are:
admin, cli-mono, comm, database,
devel, debug, doc, editors,
- electronics, embedded, fonts,
- games, gnome, graphics, gnu-r,
- gnustep, hamradio, haskell,
- httpd, interpreters, java, kde,
- kernel, libs, libdevel, lisp,
- localization, mail, math, misc,
+ education, electronics, embedded,
+ fonts, games, gnome, graphics,
+ gnu-r, gnustep, hamradio, haskell,
+ httpd, interpreters, introspection,
+ java, kde, kernel, libs,
+ libdevel, lisp, localization,
+ mail, math, metapackages, misc,
net, news, ocaml, oldlibs,
otherosfs, perl, php, python,
ruby, science, shells, sound,
@@ -796,7 +825,7 @@
- The Debian GNU/Linux distribution is based on the Debian
+ The Debian distribution is based on the Debian
package management system, called
- Every package must have a Debian maintainer (the
- maintainer may be one person or a group of people
- reachable from a common email address, such as a mailing
- list). The maintainer is responsible for ensuring that
- the package is placed in the appropriate distributions.
-
- The maintainer must be specified in the
- Maintainer control field with their correct name
- and a working email address. If one person maintains
- several packages, they should try to avoid having
- different forms of their name and email address in
+ Every package must have a maintainer, except for orphaned
+ packages as described below. The maintainer may be one person
+ or a group of people reachable from a common email address, such
+ as a mailing list. The maintainer is responsible for
+ maintaining the Debian packaging files, evaluating and
+ responding appropriately to reported bugs, uploading new
+ versions of the package (either directly or through a sponsor),
+ ensuring that the package is placed in the appropriate archive
+ area and included in Debian releases as appropriate for the
+ stability and utility of the package, and requesting removal of
+ the package from the Debian distribution if it is no longer
+ useful or maintainable.
+
+ The maintainer must be specified in the Maintainer
+ control field with their correct name and a working email
+ address. The email address given in the Maintainer
+ control field must accept mail from those role accounts in
+ Debian used to send automated mails regarding the package. This
+ includes non-spam mail from the bug-tracking system, all mail
+ from the Debian archive maintenance software, and other role
+ accounts or automated processes that are commonly agreed on by
+ the project.
- If the maintainer of a package quits from the Debian
- project, "Debian QA Group"
-
+ An orphaned package is one with no current maintainer. Orphaned
+ packages should have their Maintainer control field set
+ to Debian QA Group <packages@qa.debian.org>.
+ These packages are considered maintained by the Debian project
+ as a whole until someone else volunteers to take over
+ maintenance.
@@ -1081,7 +1135,7 @@
Sometimes, unpacking one package requires that another package
be first unpacked and configured. In this case, the
- dependent package must specify this dependency in
+ depending package must specify this dependency in
the Pre-Depends control field.
The base system is a minimum subset of the Debian
- GNU/Linux system that is installed before everything else
+ system that is installed before everything else
on a new system. Only very few packages are allowed to form
part of the base system, in order to keep the required disk
usage very small.
@@ -1801,23 +1855,26 @@
identical behavior.
+ The following targets are required and must be implemented
+ by
Since an interactive
- The targets are as follows (required unless stated otherwise):
+ The targets are as follows:
The build target should perform all the
@@ -1928,8 +1985,8 @@
@@ -1977,7 +2034,7 @@
This must undo any effects that the build
@@ -2059,14 +2116,21 @@
The architectures we build on and build for are determined
- by
+ Here is a list of supported
@@ -2415,19 +2479,26 @@ endif
fields
Each paragraph consists of a series of data fields; each
field consists of the field name, followed by a colon and
- then the data/value associated with that field. It ends at
- the end of the (logical) line. Horizontal whitespace
+ then the data/value associated with that field. The field
+ name is composed of printable ASCII characters (i.e.,
+ characters that have values between 33 and 126, inclusive)
+ except colon and must not with a begin with #. The
+ field ends at the end of the line or at the end of the
+ last continuation line (see below). Horizontal whitespace
(spaces and tabs) may occur immediately before or after the
value and is ignored there; it is conventional to put a
single space after the colon. For example, a field might
@@ -2445,21 +2516,51 @@ Package: libc6
- Many fields' values may span several lines; in this case
- each continuation line must start with a space or a tab.
- Any trailing spaces or tabs at the end of individual
- lines of a field value are ignored.
+ There are three types of fields:
+
- In fields where it is specified that lines may not wrap,
- only a single line of data is allowed and whitespace is not
- significant in a field body. Whitespace must not appear
+ Whitespace must not appear
inside names (of packages, architectures, files or anything
else) or version numbers, or between the characters of
multi-character version relationships.
+ The presence and purpose of a field, and the syntax of its
+ value may differ between types of control files.
+
Field names are not case-sensitive, but it is usual to
capitalize the field names using mixed case as shown below.
@@ -2468,9 +2569,17 @@ Package: libc6
- Blank lines, or lines consisting only of spaces and tabs,
- are not allowed within field values or between fields - that
- would mean a new paragraph.
+ Paragraph separators (empty lines) and lines consisting only of
+ spaces and tabs are not allowed within field values or between
+ fields. Empty lines in field values are usually escaped by
+ representing them by a space followed by a dot.
+
+ Lines starting with # without any preceding whitespace are comments
+ lines that are only permitted in source package control files
+ (
@@ -2501,6 +2610,7 @@ Package: libc6
- In addition to the control file syntax described
- The source package control file is generated by
+ The Debian source control file is generated by
+ See for additional requirements and
+ information about package maintainers.
+
- List of the names and email addresses of co-maintainers of
- the package, if any. If the package has other maintainers
- beside the one named in the
-
+ This is normally an optional field, but if
+ the Maintainer control field names a group of people
+ and a shared email address, the Uploaders field must
+ be present and must contain at least one human with their
+ personal email address.
- Any parser that interprets the Uploaders field in
-
- In the source package control file
+ The list may include (or consist solely of) the special
value all. In other words, in
- Specifying any indicates that the source package
+ Specifying only any indicates that the source package
isn't dependent on any particular architecture and should
compile fine on any one. The produced binary package(s)
- will either be specific to whatever the current build
- architecture is or will be architecture-independent.
+ will be specific to whatever the current build architecture is.
Specifying only all indicates that the source package
- will only build architecture-independent packages. If this is
- the case, all must be used rather than any;
- any implies that the source package will build at
- least one architecture-dependent package.
+ will only build architecture-independent packages.
+
+ Specifying any all indicates that the source package
+ isn't dependent on any particular architecture. The set of
+ produced binary packages will include at least one
+ architecture-dependant package and one architecture-independent
+ package.
@@ -2928,7 +3045,7 @@ Package: libc6
This is a boolean field which may occur only in the
control file of a binary package or in a per-package fields
- paragraph of a main source control data file.
+ paragraph of a source package control file.
@@ -3164,7 +3281,8 @@ Package: libc6
In a source or binary control file, the Description
field contains a description of the binary package, consisting
of two parts, the synopsis or the short description, and the
- long description. The field's format is as follows:
+ long description. It is a multiline field with the following
+ format:
@@ -3184,6 +3302,7 @@ Package: libc6
Those starting with a single space are part of a paragraph.
Successive lines of this form will be word-wrapped when
displayed. The leading space will usually be stripped off.
+ The line must contain at least one non-whitespace character.
- This field contains the human-readable changes data, describing
+ This multiline field contains the human-readable changes data, describing
the differences between the last version and the current one.
- This field is a list of binary packages. Its syntax and
+ This folded field is a list of binary packages. Its syntax and
meaning varies depending on the control file in which it
appears.
When it appears in a
- These fields contain a list of files with a checksum and size
+ These multiline fields contain a list of files with a checksum and size
for each one. Both Checksums-Sha1
and Checksums-Sha256 have the same syntax and differ
only in the checksum algorithm used: SHA-1
@@ -3585,6 +3705,21 @@ Checksums-Sha256:
must match the list of files in the Files field.
+ The most recent version of a package uploaded to unstable or
+ experimental must include the field DM-Upload-Allowed:
+ yes in the source section of its source control file for
+ the Debian archive to accept uploads signed with a key in the
+ Debian Maintainer keyring. See the General
+ Resolution
@@ -3611,7 +3746,7 @@ Checksums-Sha256:
field name after the hyphen will be used in the output
file. Where the letter B is used the field
will appear in binary package control files, where the
- letter S is used in source package control
+ letter S is used in Debian source control
files and where C is used in upload control
(.changes) files.
where * is either BUILD for specification of
- the build machine or HOST for specification of the
- host machine.
+ the build architecture or HOST for specification of the
+ host architecture.
+ You should not specify a Pre-Depends entry for a + package before this has been discussed on the + debian-devel mailing list and a consensus about + doing that has been reached. See . +
@@ -4776,7 +4970,7 @@ Build-Depends: foo [linux-any], bar [any-i386], baz [!linux-any]
When one binary package declares that it breaks another,
@@ -4887,7 +5081,7 @@ Build-Depends: foo [linux-any], bar [any-i386], baz [!linux-any]
-
+ These are currently
+ The additional directory
The following directories in the root filesystem are @@ -6064,9 +6274,21 @@ install -m644 debian/shlibs.package debian/package/DEBIAN/ to get access to kernel information.
+ On GNU/Hurd systems, the following additional
+ directories are allowed in the root
+ filesystem:
The version of this document referred here can be
found in the debian-policy package or on
+ The directory
+ Packages must not include files or directories
+ under
-
Packages must not modify the configuration file
- If a package wants to install a job that has to be executed
- via cron, it should place a file with the name of the
- package in one or more of the following directories:
+ If a package wants to install a job that has to be executed via
+ cron, it should place a file named as specified
+ in into one or more of the following
+ directories:
All files installed in any of these directories must be @@ -6969,15 +7215,18 @@ Reloading description configuration...done.
If a certain job has to be executed at some other frequency or
- at a specific time, the package should install a file
-
Unlike
+ The file name of a cron job file should normally match the + name of the package from which it comes. +
+ ++ If a package supplies multiple cron job files files in the + same directory, the file names should all start with the name + of the package (possibly modified as described below) followed + by a hyphen (-) and a suitable suffix. +
+ ++ A cron job file name must not include any period or plus + characters (. or +) characters as this will + cause cron to ignore the file. Underscores (_) + should be used instead of . and + + characters. +
+
- The MIME support policy can be found in the mime-policy
- files in the debian-policy package.
- It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
-
+ Packages containing such programs must register them
+ with
Please refer to the documentation that comes with the
@@ -7716,11 +8002,23 @@ fname () {
- In general, symbolic links within a top-level directory
- should be relative, and symbolic links pointing from one
- top-level directory into another should be absolute. (A
- top-level directory is a sub-directory of the root
- directory
@@ -7973,22 +8271,6 @@ ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail debian/tmp/usr/bin/runq
- Packages which specify the same file as a
- conffile must be tagged as conflicting
- with each other. (This is an instance of the general rule
- about not sharing files. Note that neither alternatives
- nor diversions are likely to be appropriate in this case;
- in particular,
- The maintainer scripts must not alter a conffile
- of any package, including the one the scripts
- belong to.
-
If two or more packages use the same configuration file
and it is reasonable for both to be installed at the same
@@ -8038,6 +8320,34 @@ ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail debian/tmp/usr/bin/runq
and which manages the shared configuration files. (The
sgml-base package is a good example.)
+ If the configuration file cannot be shared as described above,
+ the packages must be marked as conflicting with each other.
+ Two packages that specify the same file as
+ a conffile must conflict. This is an instance of the
+ general rule about not sharing files. Neither alternatives
+ nor diversions are likely to be appropriate in this case; in
+ particular,
+ When two packages both declare the same conffile, they
+ may see left-over configuration files from each other even
+ though they conflict with each other. If a user removes
+ (without purging) one of the packages and installs the other,
+ the new package will take over the conffile from the
+ old package. If the file was modified by the user, it will be
+ treated the same as any other locally
+ modified conffile during an upgrade.
+
+ The maintainer scripts must not alter a conffile
+ of any package, including the one the scripts
+ belong to.
+
- Programs that require the non-DFSG-compliant OSF/Motif or
- OpenMotif libraries
- Both Motif-linked versions are dependent - upon non-DFSG-compliant software and thus cannot be - uploaded to the main distribution; if the - software is itself DFSG-compliant it may be uploaded to - the contrib distribution. While known existing - versions of Motif permit unlimited redistribution of - binaries linked against the library (whether statically or - dynamically), it is the package maintainer's - responsibility to determine whether this is permitted by - the license of the copy of Motif in their possession. -
-In addition, the copyright file must say where the upstream - sources (if any) were obtained. It should name the original - authors of the package and the Debian maintainer(s) who were - involved with its creation. + sources (if any) were obtained, and should name the original + authors.
Packages in the contrib or non-free archive areas should state in the copyright file that the package is not - part of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and briefly explain - why. + part of the Debian distribution and briefly explain why.
@@ -9600,8 +9873,8 @@ END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
- The Debian version of the FSF's GNU hello program is provided
- as an example for people wishing to create Debian
- packages. The Debian