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="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
43 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
44 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
45 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
47 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
48 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
49 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
51 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
55 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
56 package control files.
59 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
63 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
66 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
67 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
68 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
71 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
72 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
75 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
76 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
77 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
80 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
83 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
86 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
89 Released August, 2012.
93 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
96 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
97 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
100 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
101 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
102 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
105 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
108 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
109 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
110 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
111 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
114 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
115 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
116 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
117 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
118 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
119 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
122 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
123 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
124 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
127 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
128 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
130 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
131 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
134 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
138 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
141 Released February, 2012.
145 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
146 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
149 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
150 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
151 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
154 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
155 list of architectures must be non-empty.
158 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
159 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
160 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
161 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
162 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
163 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
164 should be stored in a temporary file system.
167 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
168 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
169 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
173 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
174 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
175 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
176 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
177 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
180 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
183 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
184 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
187 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
188 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
189 they have been removed.
192 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
193 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
194 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
196 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
197 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
198 file" specification is included.
201 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
202 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
206 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
207 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
210 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
211 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
215 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
218 Released April, 2011.
222 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
223 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
227 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
228 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
229 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
230 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
233 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
234 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
235 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
239 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
240 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
241 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
242 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
246 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
249 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
250 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
251 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
252 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
256 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
257 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
258 dependencies are now a should not.
261 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
262 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
263 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
264 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
265 actions if their dependencies are not available.
268 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
269 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
272 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
273 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
274 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
275 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
276 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
279 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
280 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
281 POSIX-required interface.
285 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
292 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
293 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
297 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
298 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
299 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
302 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
303 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
304 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
307 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
308 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
309 architecture-independent.
312 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
313 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
314 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
317 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
318 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
319 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
320 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
323 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
326 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
327 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
328 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
331 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
332 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
335 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
336 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
337 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
338 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
339 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
340 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
341 their <file>.la</file> files.
344 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
345 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
346 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
347 thread-safe if the library supports this.
350 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
351 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
352 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
353 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
354 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
357 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
358 logrotate rules is now recommended.
361 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
362 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
364 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
365 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
366 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
367 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
368 for the corresponding manual page.
371 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
372 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
373 executables in those subdirectories.
376 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
377 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
382 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
388 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
389 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
390 Date control field is now precisely specified.
393 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
394 particular field name.
396 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
397 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
398 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
399 documented and recommended.
401 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
402 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
403 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
404 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
405 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
406 for <file>.changes</file> files.
409 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
413 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
416 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
417 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
418 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
419 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
423 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
424 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
425 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
426 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
427 question, but should avoid this if possible.
429 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
430 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
431 files between packages.
434 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
435 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
436 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
439 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
440 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
443 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
444 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
445 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
446 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
449 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
451 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
452 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
453 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
456 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
457 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
458 It should instead be included directly
459 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
460 common-licenses for the time being.
463 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
464 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
465 template instead of a string to allow translation.
468 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
469 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
470 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
471 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
472 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
475 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
476 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
477 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
481 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
488 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
489 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
490 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
493 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
494 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
497 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
498 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
502 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
508 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
509 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
512 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
513 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
514 may be used in different versions of the field.
517 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
518 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
521 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
524 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
525 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
526 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
527 using them should be built with RPATH.
530 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
531 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
532 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
533 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
536 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
537 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
540 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
541 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
542 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
546 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
547 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
548 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
549 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
550 support partial upgrades.
553 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
554 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
558 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
565 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
566 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
567 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
568 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
572 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
573 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
574 back on other methods.
577 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
581 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
582 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
585 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
586 <file>/var/mail</file>.
589 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
593 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
594 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
598 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
605 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
606 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
607 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
610 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
613 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
617 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
618 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
621 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
622 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
625 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
628 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
629 with no preceding whitespace.
632 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
633 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
634 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
635 behavior of the init system in Debian.
638 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
639 start the daemon again if it's already running.
642 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
643 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
644 subdirectories dynamically.
647 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
648 variable arguments and supports assignment.
651 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
652 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
656 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
663 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
664 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
665 system is now defined by priority.
667 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
668 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
670 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
671 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
672 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
673 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
674 unknown flags be ignored.
676 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
677 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
678 processes if the package supports it
680 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
681 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
684 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
685 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
686 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
687 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
688 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
689 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
692 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
694 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
697 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
698 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
699 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
700 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
701 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
702 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
704 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
705 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
706 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
709 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
710 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
713 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
714 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
717 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
718 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
719 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
720 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
721 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
722 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
725 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
726 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
728 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
729 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
732 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
735 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
742 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
743 anything, even the end of a part.
745 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
746 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
749 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
750 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
752 <tag>menu policy</tag>
753 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
754 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
755 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
756 sections would be more appropriate.
758 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
761 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
762 critical, or emergency.
764 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
765 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
766 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
769 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
770 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
771 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
773 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
774 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
777 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
783 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
784 should to a must)</item>
787 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
793 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
796 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
803 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
804 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
805 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
806 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
807 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
808 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
811 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
812 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
813 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
816 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
823 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
824 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
825 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
827 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
828 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
830 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
831 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
832 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
833 etc. may be of interest.
834 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
835 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
836 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
837 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
838 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
839 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
840 as well, to prepare for future changes.
842 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
843 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
844 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
847 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
848 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
850 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
851 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
852 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
853 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
857 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
864 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
867 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
868 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
869 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
872 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
873 allow packages to share image files with the web server
877 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
884 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
885 user prompts are now deprecated.
888 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
895 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
896 the minor version number:
898 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
899 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
900 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
901 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
902 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
903 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
904 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
905 deb-building tool-chain.
907 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
908 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
909 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
910 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
912 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
913 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
914 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
915 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
916 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
917 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
918 sections about changelog files.
919 <tag>menu policy</tag>
920 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
923 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
925 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
926 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
928 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
932 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
939 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
940 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
943 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
944 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
947 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
954 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
955 full details of the long description format.
957 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
958 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
959 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
961 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
962 the init script should start the service.
964 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
965 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
966 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
969 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
976 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
977 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
978 documented in the changelog file.
980 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
981 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
983 <tag>menu policy</tag>
984 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
985 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
986 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
988 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
989 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
993 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1000 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1001 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1003 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1006 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1007 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1009 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1010 they add themselves as an alternative for
1011 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1013 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1014 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1015 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1016 environment variable.
1018 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1019 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1020 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1021 review the new rules.
1023 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1024 scripts. Long rationale.
1028 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1029 rules, please see below
1032 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1039 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1042 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1043 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1045 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1046 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1048 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1049 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1050 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1051 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1053 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1054 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1057 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1064 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1065 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1066 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1069 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1070 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1071 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1074 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1075 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1078 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1079 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1082 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1085 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1088 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1092 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1094 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1095 fonts for the X Window System
1098 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1101 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1102 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1105 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1106 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1111 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1112 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1116 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1117 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1118 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1121 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1122 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1123 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1128 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1129 <p> Released Apr 2001
1133 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1134 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1137 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1138 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1139 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1140 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1144 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1146 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1150 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1151 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1152 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1156 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1158 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1162 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1163 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1167 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1169 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1173 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1174 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1178 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1180 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1184 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1185 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1186 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1189 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1190 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1191 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1192 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1195 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1200 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1202 <p> Released Aug 00.
1206 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1207 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1208 and the other without
1212 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1214 <p> Released Aug 00.
1218 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1219 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1220 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1223 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1224 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1225 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1228 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1229 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1232 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1236 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1238 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1240 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1241 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1242 calculation guidelines)
1245 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1247 <item>X application defaults </item>
1251 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1255 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1257 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1258 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1263 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1265 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1269 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1270 etc. Should not affect many packages
1274 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1276 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1280 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1281 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1285 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1287 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1288 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1289 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1292 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1293 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1294 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1295 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1299 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1300 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1301 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1302 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1305 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1306 <file>/var/lib</file>
1308 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1309 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1311 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1314 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1315 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1319 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1320 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1321 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1324 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1329 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1331 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1335 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1336 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1337 files must go in the run-time library package
1341 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1343 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1347 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1348 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1352 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1353 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1356 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1357 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1358 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1359 other major licenses
1362 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1363 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1366 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1369 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1372 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1373 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1374 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1377 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1378 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1379 installed setgid utmp
1383 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1386 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1388 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1392 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1394 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1395 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1396 Section 5 and Section 6.
1398 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1399 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1400 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1401 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1402 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1406 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1407 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1408 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1409 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1411 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1412 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1414 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1415 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1417 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1418 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1420 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1425 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1427 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1429 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1431 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1432 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1433 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1434 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1437 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1438 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1439 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1443 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1445 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1446 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1447 installs shared libraries
1448 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1452 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1454 <p> Released Jan 1998
1457 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1459 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1460 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1462 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1463 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1467 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1468 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1469 file extension as the referenced file
1472 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1473 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1474 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1477 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1479 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1480 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1481 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1485 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1486 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1487 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1490 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1491 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1492 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1493 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1497 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1498 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1502 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1503 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1504 reasonable default configuration
1507 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1508 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1509 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1512 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1514 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1515 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1517 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1518 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1522 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1523 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1528 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1530 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1533 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1534 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1535 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1538 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1539 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1542 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1545 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1547 <p> Released July 1997.
1550 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1553 where <arch> is one of the following:
1554 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1557 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1559 <item>user ID's</item>
1561 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1563 <item>cron jobs</item>
1565 <item>device files</item>
1567 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1569 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1572 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1574 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1577 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1580 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1582 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1584 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1586 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1590 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1592 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1595 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1598 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1600 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1603 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1605 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1606 without consultation </item>
1608 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1611 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1613 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1616 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>