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="3.9.6.0"> Version 3.9.6.0
44 <item> The FHS is relaxed to allow a subdirectory of <file>/usr/lib</file>
45 to hold a mixture of architecture-independent and architecture-dependent
46 files, though directories entirely composed of architecture-independent files
47 should be located in <file>/usr/share</file>.
50 <item>The FHS requirement for <file>/usr/local/lib64</file> to exist
51 if <file>/lib64</file> or <file>/usr/lib64</file> exists is removed.
54 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch include files,
55 permitting header files to instead be installed to
56 <file>/usr/include/triplet</file>.
59 <item> Binaries must not be statically linked with the GNU C library,
60 see policy for exceptions.
63 <item> Perl package should use the <tt>%Config</tt> hash to locate module
64 paths instead of hardcoding paths in <tt>@INC</tt>.
67 <item> Perl binary modules and any modules installed into
68 <tt>$Config{vendorarch}</tt> must depend on the relevant
69 <package>perlapi-*</package> package.
70 </item> </taglist></p>
71 <sect id="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
74 Released October, 2013.
78 <item>Control data fields must not start with the hyphen character
79 (<tt>-</tt>), to avoid potential confusions when parsing clearsigned control
80 data files that were not properly unescaped.
82 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
83 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
84 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
86 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
87 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
88 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
90 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
94 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
95 package control files.
98 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
102 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
105 <item>Packages should remove all obsolete configuration files without
106 local changes during upgrades. The <prgn>dpkg-maintscript-helper</prgn>
107 tool, available from the <package>dpkg</package> package since
108 <em>Wheezy</em>, can help with this.
111 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
112 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
113 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
116 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
117 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
120 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
121 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
122 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
125 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
128 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
131 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
134 Released August, 2012.
138 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
141 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
142 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
145 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
146 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
147 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
150 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
153 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
154 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
155 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
156 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
159 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
160 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
161 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
162 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
163 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
164 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
167 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
168 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
169 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
172 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
173 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
175 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
176 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
179 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
183 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
186 Released February, 2012.
190 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
191 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
194 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
195 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
196 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
199 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
200 list of architectures must be non-empty.
203 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
204 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
205 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
206 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
207 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
208 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
209 should be stored in a temporary file system.
212 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
213 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
214 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
218 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
219 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
220 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
221 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
222 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
225 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
228 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
229 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
232 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
233 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
234 they have been removed.
237 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
238 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
239 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
241 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
242 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
243 file" specification is included.
246 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
247 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
251 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
252 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
255 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
256 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
260 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
263 Released April, 2011.
267 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
268 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
272 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
273 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
274 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
275 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
278 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
279 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
280 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
284 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
285 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
286 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
287 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
291 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
294 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
295 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
296 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
297 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
301 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
302 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
303 dependencies are now a should not.
306 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
307 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
308 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
309 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
310 actions if their dependencies are not available.
313 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
314 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
317 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
318 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
319 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
320 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
321 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
324 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
325 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
326 POSIX-required interface.
330 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
337 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
338 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
342 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
343 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
344 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
347 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
348 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
349 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
352 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
353 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
354 architecture-independent.
357 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
358 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
359 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
362 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
363 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
364 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
365 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
368 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
371 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
372 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
373 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
376 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
377 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
380 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
381 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
382 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
383 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
384 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
385 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
386 their <file>.la</file> files.
389 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
390 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
391 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
392 thread-safe if the library supports this.
395 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
396 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
397 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
398 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
399 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
402 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
403 logrotate rules is now recommended.
406 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
407 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
409 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
410 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
411 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
412 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
413 for the corresponding manual page.
416 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
417 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
418 executables in those subdirectories.
421 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
422 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
427 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
433 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
434 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
435 Date control field is now precisely specified.
438 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
439 particular field name.
441 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
442 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
443 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
444 documented and recommended.
446 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
447 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
448 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
449 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
450 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
451 for <file>.changes</file> files.
454 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
458 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
461 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
462 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
463 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
464 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
468 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
469 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
470 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
471 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
472 question, but should avoid this if possible.
474 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
475 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
476 files between packages.
479 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
480 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
481 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
484 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
485 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
488 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
489 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
490 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
491 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
494 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
496 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
497 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
498 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
501 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
502 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
503 It should instead be included directly
504 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
505 common-licenses for the time being.
508 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
509 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
510 template instead of a string to allow translation.
513 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
514 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
515 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
516 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
517 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
520 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
521 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
522 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
526 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
533 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
534 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
535 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
538 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
539 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
542 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
543 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
547 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
553 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
554 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
557 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
558 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
559 may be used in different versions of the field.
562 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
563 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
566 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
569 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
570 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
571 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
572 using them should be built with RPATH.
575 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
576 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
577 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
578 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
581 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
582 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
585 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
586 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
587 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
591 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
592 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
593 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
594 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
595 support partial upgrades.
598 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
599 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
603 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
610 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
611 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
612 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
613 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
617 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
618 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
619 back on other methods.
622 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
626 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
627 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
630 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
631 <file>/var/mail</file>.
634 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
638 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
639 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
643 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
650 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
651 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
652 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
655 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
658 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
662 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
663 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
666 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
667 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
670 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
673 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
674 with no preceding whitespace.
677 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
678 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
679 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
680 behavior of the init system in Debian.
683 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
684 start the daemon again if it's already running.
687 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
688 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
689 subdirectories dynamically.
692 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
693 variable arguments and supports assignment.
696 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
697 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
701 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
708 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
709 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
710 system is now defined by priority.
712 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
713 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
715 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
716 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
717 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
718 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
719 unknown flags be ignored.
721 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
722 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
723 processes if the package supports it
725 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
726 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
729 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
730 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
731 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
732 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
733 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
734 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
737 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
739 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
742 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
743 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
744 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
745 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
746 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
747 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
749 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
750 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
751 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
754 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
755 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
758 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
759 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
762 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
763 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
764 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
765 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
766 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
767 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
770 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
771 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
773 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
774 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
777 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
780 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
787 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
788 anything, even the end of a part.
790 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
791 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
794 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
795 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
797 <tag>menu policy</tag>
798 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
799 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
800 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
801 sections would be more appropriate.
803 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
806 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
807 critical, or emergency.
809 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
810 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
811 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
814 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
815 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
816 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
818 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
819 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
822 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
828 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
829 should to a must)</item>
832 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
838 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
841 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
848 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
849 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
850 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
851 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
852 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
853 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
856 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
857 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
858 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
861 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
868 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
869 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
870 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
872 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
873 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
875 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
876 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
877 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
878 etc. may be of interest.
879 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
880 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
881 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
882 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
883 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
884 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
885 as well, to prepare for future changes.
887 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
888 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
889 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
892 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
893 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
895 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
896 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
897 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
898 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
902 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
909 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
912 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
913 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
914 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
917 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
918 allow packages to share image files with the web server
922 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
929 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
930 user prompts are now deprecated.
933 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
940 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
941 the minor version number:
943 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
944 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
945 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
946 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
947 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
948 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
949 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
950 deb-building tool-chain.
952 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
953 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
954 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
955 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
957 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
958 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
959 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
960 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
961 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
962 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
963 sections about changelog files.
964 <tag>menu policy</tag>
965 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
968 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
970 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
971 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
973 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
977 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
984 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
985 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
988 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
989 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
992 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
999 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
1000 full details of the long description format.
1002 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
1003 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
1004 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
1006 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
1007 the init script should start the service.
1009 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
1010 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
1011 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
1014 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
1021 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
1022 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
1023 documented in the changelog file.
1025 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
1026 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
1028 <tag>menu policy</tag>
1029 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
1030 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
1031 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
1033 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
1034 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
1038 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1045 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1046 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1048 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1051 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1052 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1054 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1055 they add themselves as an alternative for
1056 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1058 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1059 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1060 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1061 environment variable.
1063 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1064 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1065 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1066 review the new rules.
1068 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1069 scripts. Long rationale.
1073 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1074 rules, please see below
1077 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1084 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1087 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1088 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1090 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1091 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1093 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1094 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1095 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1096 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1098 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1099 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1102 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1109 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1110 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1111 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1114 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1115 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1116 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1119 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1120 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1123 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1124 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1127 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1130 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1133 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1137 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1139 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1140 fonts for the X Window System
1143 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1146 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1147 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1150 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1151 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1156 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1157 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1161 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1162 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1163 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1165 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1166 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1167 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1172 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1173 <p> Released Apr 2001
1177 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1178 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1181 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1182 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1183 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1184 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1188 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1190 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1194 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1195 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1196 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1200 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1202 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1206 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1207 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1211 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1213 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1217 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1218 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1222 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1224 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1228 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1229 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1230 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1233 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1234 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1235 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1236 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1239 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1244 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1246 <p> Released Aug 00.
1250 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1251 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1252 and the other without
1256 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1258 <p> Released Aug 00.
1262 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1263 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1264 package with debugging information optionally.
1267 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1268 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1269 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1272 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1273 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1276 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1280 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1282 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1284 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1285 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1286 calculation guidelines)
1289 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1291 <item>X application defaults </item>
1295 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1299 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1301 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1302 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1307 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1309 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1313 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1314 etc. Should not affect many packages
1318 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1320 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1324 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1325 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1329 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1331 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1332 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1333 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1336 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1337 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1338 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1339 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1343 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1344 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1345 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1346 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1349 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1350 <file>/var/lib</file>
1352 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1353 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1355 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1358 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1359 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1363 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1364 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1365 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1368 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1373 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1375 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1379 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1380 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1381 files must go in the run-time library package
1385 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1387 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1391 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1392 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1396 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1397 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1400 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1401 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1402 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1403 other major licenses
1406 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1407 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1410 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1413 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1416 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1417 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1418 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1421 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1422 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1423 installed setgid utmp
1427 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1430 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1432 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1436 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1438 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1439 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1440 Section 5 and Section 6.
1442 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1443 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1444 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1445 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1446 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1450 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1451 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1452 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1453 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1455 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1456 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1458 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1459 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1461 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1462 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1464 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1469 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1471 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1473 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1475 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1476 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1477 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1478 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1481 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1482 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1483 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1487 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1489 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1490 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1491 installs shared libraries
1492 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1496 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1498 <p> Released Jan 1998
1501 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1503 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1504 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1506 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1507 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1511 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1512 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1513 file extension as the referenced file
1516 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1517 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1518 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1521 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1523 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1524 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1525 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1529 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1530 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1531 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1534 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1535 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1536 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1537 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1541 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1542 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1546 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1547 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1548 reasonable default configuration
1551 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1552 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1553 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1556 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1558 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1559 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1561 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1562 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1566 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1567 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1572 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1574 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1577 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1578 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1579 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1582 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1583 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1586 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1589 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1591 <p> Released July 1997.
1594 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1597 where <arch> is one of the following:
1598 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1601 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1603 <item>user ID's</item>
1605 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1607 <item>cron jobs</item>
1609 <item>device files</item>
1611 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1613 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1616 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1618 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1621 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1624 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1626 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1628 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1630 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1634 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1636 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1639 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1642 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1644 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1647 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1649 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1650 without consultation </item>
1652 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1655 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1657 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1660 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>