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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
8 Created On Node : tiamat.datasync.com
9 Last Modified By : Manoj Srivastava
10 Last Modified On : Sat Jun 18 00:16:40 2005
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13 Status : Unknown, Use with caution!
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>
57 * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
58 anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
59 * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
60 and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
61 logical operators. [10.4]
62 * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
63 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
64 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
65 sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
67 * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
68 should to a must) [6.1]
70 * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
73 * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
74 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
75 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
76 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
77 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
78 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
79 of the process. [10.2]
80 * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
81 /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
82 must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
85 * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
86 them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
87 perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
88 * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
89 cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
90 * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
91 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
92 though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
94 * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
95 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
96 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
97 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
98 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
99 as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
100 * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
101 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
102 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
104 * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
105 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
106 constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
107 * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
108 using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
109 /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
110 [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
114 * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
115 * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
116 /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
117 the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
118 * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
119 allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
122 + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
123 user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
127 - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
128 the minor version number:
129 + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
130 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
131 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
132 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
133 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
134 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
135 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
136 deb-building tool-chain.
137 + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
138 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
139 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
140 properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
141 + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
142 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
143 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
144 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
145 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
146 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
147 sections about changelog files.
148 - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
150 - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
151 - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
152 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
153 - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
158 - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
159 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
160 like xterm does. [11.8.3]
161 - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
162 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
167 - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
168 full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
169 - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
170 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
171 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
172 - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
173 the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
174 - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
175 example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
176 (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
181 - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
182 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
183 documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
184 - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
185 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
186 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
187 clean target is called. [7.6]
188 - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
189 - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
191 - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
192 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
193 are still a bug. [12.1]
197 - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
198 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
199 - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
201 - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
202 special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
203 - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
204 they add themselves as an alternative for
205 /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
206 - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
207 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
208 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
209 environment variable. [10.1]
210 - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
211 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
212 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
213 review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
214 - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
215 scripts. Long rationale. [8]
216 - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
217 build rules, please see below]
221 - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
222 standard packages [2.5]
223 - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
224 not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
225 - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
226 a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
227 - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
228 /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
229 the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred that one
230 ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
231 - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
232 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [7]
237 - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
238 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
239 symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
240 - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
241 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
242 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
243 - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
244 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
245 - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
246 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
247 - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
249 - X Windows related things:
250 * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
252 * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
253 * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
254 fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
255 * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
256 * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
257 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
258 * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
259 OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
264 - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
265 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
266 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
268 - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
269 programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
275 - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
276 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
277 - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
278 in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
279 symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
285 - X app-defaults directory has moved from
286 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
291 - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
292 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
297 - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
298 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
303 - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
304 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
305 /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
306 - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
307 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
308 /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
309 in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
310 - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
316 - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
317 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
318 and the other without [11.8.1]
323 - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
324 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
325 package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
326 - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
327 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
328 should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
329 - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
330 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
331 - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
333 - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
334 - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
335 - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
336 /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
337 calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
338 - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
339 - X application defaults [11.8.6]
340 - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
341 has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
342 - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
343 - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
344 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
350 - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
351 etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
356 - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
357 /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
358 and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
359 - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
360 - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
361 (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
362 update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
363 - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
364 /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
365 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
366 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
367 incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
368 - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
369 with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
370 /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
371 - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
373 - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
374 - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
375 - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
376 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
378 - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
379 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
380 using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
381 - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
387 - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
388 packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
389 .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
394 - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
395 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
397 - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
398 control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
399 - The location of the GPL has changed to
400 /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
401 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
402 other major licenses [12.6]
403 - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
404 include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
405 - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
406 - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
408 - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
409 that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
410 - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
411 /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
414 ** Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
420 - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
421 + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
422 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
423 Section 5 and Section 6.
424 + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
425 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
426 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
427 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
428 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
430 - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
431 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
432 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
433 /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
434 + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
435 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
436 - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
437 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
438 - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
439 files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
440 - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
446 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
447 + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
448 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
449 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
451 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
452 + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
453 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
456 - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
457 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
458 installs shared libraries
459 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
463 - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
464 + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
465 + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
467 + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
468 (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
471 - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
472 + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
473 file extension as the referenced file
475 - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
476 + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
478 - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
479 + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
480 start, stop, restart, force-reload
481 + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
484 - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
485 + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
486 be installed into /etc/cron.d
488 - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
489 + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
490 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
491 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
494 - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
495 + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
498 - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
499 + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
500 reasonable default configuration
502 - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
503 + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
504 by all news servers and clients
506 - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
507 + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
508 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
509 + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
510 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
512 - Updated section 4.9 Games:
513 + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
516 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
518 * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
519 /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
521 * updated section about `Configuration files':
522 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
524 * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
528 * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
531 where <arch> is one of the following:
532 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
534 * detailed rules for /usr/local
538 * editor/pager policy
544 * don't install shared libraries as executable
546 * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
548 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
550 * two programs with different functionality must not have the
555 * "Standard for Console Messages"
557 * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
559 * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
561 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
563 * Some changes WRT shared libraries
567 * No hard links in source packages
569 * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
571 * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
575 * Upstream changelog must be installed too
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