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5 upgrading-checklist.html
6 Author : Manoj Srivastava ( srivasta@tiamat.datasync.com )
7 Created On : Thu Oct 29 20:54:48 1998
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20 <title>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</title>
24 <h1>Policy checklist for upgrading your packages</h1>
26 <h2>About the checklist</h2>
29 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
30 of old packages. Note that this list is not `official'; it simply
31 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
32 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
33 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
34 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
35 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
36 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
37 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
38 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
39 used below refer to the current version.
43 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
44 package complies with currently (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
45 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
46 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
47 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
48 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
49 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
50 picking your way through this list.
53 <h2>The checklist</h2>
58 * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
59 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
60 system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
61 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
62 a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
63 else is necessary. [4.9]
64 * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
65 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
66 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
67 unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
68 * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
69 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
70 processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
71 * Debian packages should not use convience copies of code from other
72 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
74 * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
75 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
76 debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
77 source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
78 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
79 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
81 * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
82 * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
83 * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
84 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
85 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
86 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
87 * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
88 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
90 * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
91 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
92 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
93 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
94 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
95 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
97 * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
98 referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
99 * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
100 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
105 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
106 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
107 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
108 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
109 logical operators. [10.4]
110 * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
111 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
113 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
114 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
115 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
116 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
117 * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
118 in parentheses. [5.6.1]
119 * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
120 critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
121 * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
122 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
123 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
125 * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
126 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
127 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
128 * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
129 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
133 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
134 should to a must) [6.1]
138 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
142 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
143 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
144 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
145 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
146 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
147 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
148 of the process. [10.2]
149 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
150 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
151 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
155 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
156 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
157 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
158 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
159 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
160 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
161 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
162 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
164 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
165 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
166 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
167 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
168 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
169 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
170 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
171 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
172 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
174 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
175 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
176 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
177 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
178 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
179 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
180 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
184 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
185 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
186 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
187 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
188 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
189 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
193 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
194 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
198 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
199 the minor version number:
200 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
201 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
202 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
203 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
204 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
205 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
206 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
207 deb-building tool-chain.
208 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
209 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
210 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
211 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
212 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
213 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
214 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
215 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
216 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
217 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
218 sections about changelog files.
219 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
221 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
222 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
223 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
224 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
229 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
230 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
231 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
232 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
233 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
237 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
238 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
239 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
240 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
241 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
242 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
243 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
244 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
245 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
246 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
250 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
251 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
252 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
253 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
254 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
255 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
256 clean target is called. [7.6]
257 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
258 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
260 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
261 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
262 are still a bug. [12.1]
266 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
267 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
268 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
270 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
271 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
272 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
273 they add themselves as an alternative for
274 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
275 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
276 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
277 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
278 environment variable. [10.1]
279 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
280 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
281 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
282 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
283 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
284 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
285 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
286 build rules, please see below]
290 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
291 standard packages [2.5]
292 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
293 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
294 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
295 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
296 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
297 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
298 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
299 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
300 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
301 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
305 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
306 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
307 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
308 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
309 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
310 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
311 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
312 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
313 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
314 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
315 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
317 - X Windows related things:
318 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
320 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
321 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
322 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
323 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
324 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
325 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
326 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
327 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
331 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
332 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
333 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
335 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
336 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
341 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
342 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
343 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
344 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
345 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
350 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
351 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
355 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
356 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
360 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
361 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
365 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
366 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
367 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
368 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
369 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
370 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
371 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
372 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
377 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
378 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
379 and the other without [11.8.1]
383 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
384 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
385 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
386 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
387 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
388 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
389 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
390 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
391 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
393 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
394 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
395 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
396 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
397 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
398 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
399 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
400 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
401 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
402 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
403 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
404 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
409 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
410 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
414 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
415 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
416 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
417 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
418 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
419 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
420 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
421 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
422 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
423 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
424 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
425 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
426 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
427 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
428 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
429 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
431 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
432 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
433 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
434 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
436 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
437 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
438 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
439 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
444 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
445 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
446 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
450 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
451 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
453 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
454 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
455 - The location of the GPL has changed to
456 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
457 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
458 other major licenses [12.6]
459 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
460 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
461 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
462 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
464 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
465 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
466 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
467 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
470 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
476 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
477 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
478 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
479 Section 5 and Section 6.
480 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
481 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
482 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
483 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
484 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
486 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
487 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
488 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
489 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
490 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
491 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
492 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
493 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
494 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
495 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
496 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
502 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
503 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
504 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
505 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
507 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
508 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
509 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
512 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
513 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
514 installs shared libraries
515 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
519 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
520 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
521 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
523 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
524 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
527 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
528 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
529 file extension as the referenced file
531 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
532 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
534 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
535 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
536 start, stop, restart, force-reload
537 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
540 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
541 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
542 be installed into /etc/cron.d
544 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
545 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
546 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
547 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
550 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
551 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
554 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
555 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
556 reasonable default configuration
558 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
559 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
560 by all news servers and clients
562 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
563 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
564 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
565 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
566 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
568 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
569 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
572 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
574 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
575 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
577 * updated section about `Configuration files':
578 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
580 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
584 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
587 where <arch> is one of the following:
588 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
590 * detailed rules for /usr/local
594 * editor/pager policy
600 * don't install shared libraries as executable
602 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
604 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
606 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
611 * "Standard for Console Messages"
613 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
615 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
617 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
619 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
623 * No hard links in source packages
625 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
627 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
631 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
639 <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file
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