1 <!doctype debiandoc system>
5 <title> Policy checklist for upgrading your packages </title>
6 <author> Bill Allombert <email/ballombe@debian.org/ </author>
7 <author> Josip Rodin </author>
8 <author> Julian Gilbey </author>
9 <author> Russ Allbery <email/rra@debian.org/ </author>
10 <author> Manoj Srivastava <email/srivasta@debian.org/
12 <chapt> About the checklist
14 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
15 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
16 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
17 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
18 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
19 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
20 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
21 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
22 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
23 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
24 used below refer to the current version.
26 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
27 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
28 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
29 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
30 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
31 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
32 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
33 picking your way through this list.
37 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
44 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
47 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
48 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
49 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
52 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
55 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
56 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
57 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
58 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
61 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
65 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
68 Released February, 2012.
72 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
73 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
76 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
77 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
78 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
81 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
82 list of architectures must be non-empty.
85 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
86 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
87 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
88 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
89 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
90 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
91 should be stored in a temporary file system.
94 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
95 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
96 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
100 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
101 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
102 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
103 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
104 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
107 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
110 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
111 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
114 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
115 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
116 they have been removed.
119 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
120 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
121 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
123 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
124 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
125 file" specification is included.
128 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
129 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
133 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
134 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
137 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
138 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
142 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
145 Released April, 2011.
149 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
150 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
154 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
155 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
156 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
157 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
160 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
161 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
162 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
166 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
167 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
168 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
169 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
173 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
176 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
177 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
178 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
179 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
183 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
184 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
185 dependencies are now a should not.
188 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
189 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
190 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
191 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
192 actions if their dependencies are not available.
195 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
196 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
199 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
200 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
201 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
202 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
203 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
206 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
207 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
208 POSIX-required interface.
212 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
219 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
220 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
224 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
225 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
226 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
229 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
230 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
231 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
234 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
235 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
236 architecture-independent.
239 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
240 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
241 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
244 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
245 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
246 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
247 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
250 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
253 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
254 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
255 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
258 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
259 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
262 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
263 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
264 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
265 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
266 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
267 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
268 their <file>.la</file> files.
271 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
272 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
273 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
274 thread-safe if the library supports this.
277 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
278 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
279 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
280 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
281 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
284 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
285 logrotate rules is now recommended.
288 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
289 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
291 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
292 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
293 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
294 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
295 for the corresponding manual page.
298 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
299 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
300 executables in those subdirectories.
303 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
304 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
309 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
315 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
316 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
317 Date control field is now precisely specified.
320 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
321 particular field name.
323 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
324 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
325 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
326 documented and recommended.
328 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
329 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
330 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
331 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
332 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
333 for <file>.changes</file> files.
336 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
340 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
343 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
344 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
345 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
346 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
350 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
351 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
352 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
353 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
354 question, but should avoid this if possible.
356 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
357 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
358 files between packages.
361 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
362 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
363 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
366 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
367 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
370 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
371 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
372 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
373 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
376 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
378 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
379 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
380 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
383 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
384 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
385 It should instead be included directly
386 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
387 common-licenses for the time being.
390 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
391 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
392 template instead of a string to allow translation.
395 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
396 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
397 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
398 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
399 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
402 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
403 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
404 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
408 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
415 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
416 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
417 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
420 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
421 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
424 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
425 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
429 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
435 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
436 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
439 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
440 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
441 may be used in different versions of the field.
444 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
445 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
448 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
451 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
452 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
453 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
454 using them should be built with RPATH.
457 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
458 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
459 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
460 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
463 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
464 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
467 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
468 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
469 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
473 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
474 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
475 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
476 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
477 support partial upgrades.
480 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
481 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
485 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
492 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
493 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
494 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
495 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
499 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
500 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
501 back on other methods.
504 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
508 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
509 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
512 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
513 <file>/var/mail</file>.
516 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
520 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
521 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
525 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
532 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
533 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
534 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
537 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
540 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
544 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
545 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
548 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
549 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
552 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
555 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
556 with no preceding whitespace.
559 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
560 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
561 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
562 behavior of the init system in Debian.
565 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
566 start the daemon again if it's already running.
569 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
570 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
571 subdirectories dynamically.
574 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
575 variable arguments and supports assignment.
578 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
579 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
583 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
590 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
591 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
592 system is now defined by priority.
594 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
595 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
597 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
598 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
599 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
600 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
601 unknown flags be ignored.
603 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
604 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
605 processes if the package supports it
607 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
608 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
611 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
612 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
613 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
614 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
615 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
616 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
619 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
621 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
624 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
625 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
626 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
627 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
628 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
629 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
631 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
632 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
633 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
636 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
637 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
640 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
641 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
644 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
645 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
646 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
647 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
648 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
649 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
652 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
653 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
655 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
656 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
659 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
662 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
669 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
670 anything, even the end of a part.
672 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
673 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
676 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
677 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
679 <tag>menu policy</tag>
680 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
681 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
682 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
683 sections would be more appropriate.
685 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
688 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
689 critical, or emergency.
691 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
692 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
693 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
696 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
697 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
698 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
700 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
701 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
704 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
710 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
711 should to a must)</item>
714 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
720 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
723 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
730 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
731 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
732 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
733 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
734 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
735 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
738 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
739 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
740 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
743 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
750 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
751 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
752 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
754 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
755 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
757 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
758 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
759 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
760 etc. may be of interest.
761 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
762 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
763 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
764 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
765 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
766 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
767 as well, to prepare for future changes.
769 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
770 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
771 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
774 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
775 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
777 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
778 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
779 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
780 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
784 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
791 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
794 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
795 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
796 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
799 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
800 allow packages to share image files with the web server
804 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
811 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
812 user prompts are now deprecated.
815 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
822 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
823 the minor version number:
825 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
826 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
827 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
828 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
829 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
830 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
831 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
832 deb-building tool-chain.
834 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
835 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
836 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
837 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
839 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
840 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
841 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
842 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
843 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
844 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
845 sections about changelog files.
846 <tag>menu policy</tag>
847 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
850 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
852 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
853 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
855 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
859 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
866 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
867 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
870 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
871 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
874 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
881 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
882 full details of the long description format.
884 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
885 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
886 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
888 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
889 the init script should start the service.
891 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
892 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
893 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
896 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
903 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
904 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
905 documented in the changelog file.
907 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
908 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
910 <tag>menu policy</tag>
911 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
912 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
913 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
915 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
916 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
920 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
927 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
928 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
930 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
933 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
934 special Tasks: field in the control file.
936 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
937 they add themselves as an alternative for
938 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
940 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
941 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
942 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
943 environment variable.
945 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
946 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
947 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
948 review the new rules.
950 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
951 scripts. Long rationale.
955 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
956 rules, please see below
959 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
966 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
969 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
970 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
972 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
973 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
975 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
976 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
977 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
978 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
980 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
981 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
984 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
991 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
992 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
993 symlinks or .so pages to do this
996 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
997 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
998 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1001 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1002 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1005 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1006 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1009 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1012 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1015 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1019 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1021 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1022 fonts for the X Window System
1025 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1028 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1029 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1032 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1033 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1038 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1039 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1043 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1044 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1045 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1048 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1049 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1050 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1055 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1056 <p> Released Apr 2001
1060 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1061 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1064 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1065 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1066 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1067 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1071 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1073 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1077 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1078 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1079 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1083 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1085 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1089 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1090 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1094 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1096 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1100 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1101 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1105 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1107 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1111 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1112 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1113 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1116 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1117 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1118 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1119 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1122 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1127 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1129 <p> Released Aug 00.
1133 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1134 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1135 and the other without
1139 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1141 <p> Released Aug 00.
1145 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1146 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1147 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1150 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1151 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1152 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1155 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1156 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1159 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1163 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1165 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1167 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1168 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1169 calculation guidelines)
1172 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1174 <item>X application defaults </item>
1178 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1182 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1184 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1185 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1190 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1192 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1196 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1197 etc. Should not affect many packages
1201 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1203 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1207 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1208 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1212 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1214 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1215 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1216 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1219 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1220 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1221 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1222 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1226 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1227 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1228 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1229 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1232 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1233 <file>/var/lib</file>
1235 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1236 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1238 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1241 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1242 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1246 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1247 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1248 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1251 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1256 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1258 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1262 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1263 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1264 files must go in the run-time library package
1268 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1270 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1274 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1275 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1279 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1280 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1283 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1284 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1285 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1286 other major licenses
1289 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1290 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1293 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1296 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1299 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1300 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1301 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1304 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1305 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1306 installed setgid utmp
1310 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1313 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1315 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1319 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1321 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1322 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1323 Section 5 and Section 6.
1325 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1326 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1327 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1328 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1329 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1333 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1334 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1335 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1336 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1338 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1339 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1341 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1342 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1344 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1345 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1347 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1352 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1354 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1356 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1358 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1359 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1360 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1361 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1364 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1365 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1366 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1370 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1372 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1373 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1374 installs shared libraries
1375 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1379 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1381 <p> Released Jan 1998
1384 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1386 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1387 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1389 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1390 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1394 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1395 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1396 file extension as the referenced file
1399 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1400 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1401 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1404 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1406 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1407 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1408 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1412 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1413 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1414 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1417 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1418 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1419 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1420 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1424 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1425 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1429 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1430 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1431 reasonable default configuration
1434 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1435 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1436 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1439 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1441 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1442 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1444 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1445 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1449 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1450 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1455 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1457 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1460 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1461 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1462 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1465 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1466 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1469 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1472 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1474 <p> Released July 1997.
1477 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1480 where <arch> is one of the following:
1481 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1484 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1486 <item>user ID's</item>
1488 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1490 <item>cron jobs</item>
1492 <item>device files</item>
1494 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1496 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1499 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1501 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1504 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1507 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1509 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1511 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1513 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1517 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1519 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1522 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1525 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1527 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1530 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1532 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1533 without consultation </item>
1535 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1538 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1540 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1543 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>