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 field is obsolete.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 name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
64 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
65 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
68 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
69 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
72 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
73 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
74 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
77 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
80 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
83 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
86 Released August, 2012.
90 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
93 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
94 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
97 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
98 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
99 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
102 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
105 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
106 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
107 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
108 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
111 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
112 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
113 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
114 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
115 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
116 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
119 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
120 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
121 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
124 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
125 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
127 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
128 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
131 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
135 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
138 Released February, 2012.
142 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
143 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
146 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
147 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
148 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
151 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
152 list of architectures must be non-empty.
155 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
156 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
157 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
158 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
159 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
160 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
161 should be stored in a temporary file system.
164 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
165 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
166 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
170 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
171 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
172 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
173 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
174 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
177 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
180 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
181 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
184 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
185 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
186 they have been removed.
189 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
190 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
191 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
193 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
194 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
195 file" specification is included.
198 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
199 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
203 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
204 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
207 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
208 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
212 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
215 Released April, 2011.
219 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
220 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
224 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
225 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
226 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
227 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
230 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
231 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
232 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
236 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
237 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
238 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
239 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
243 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
246 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
247 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
248 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
249 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
253 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
254 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
255 dependencies are now a should not.
258 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
259 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
260 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
261 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
262 actions if their dependencies are not available.
265 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
266 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
269 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
270 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
271 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
272 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
273 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
276 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
277 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
278 POSIX-required interface.
282 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
289 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
290 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
294 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
295 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
296 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
299 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
300 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
301 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
304 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
305 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
306 architecture-independent.
309 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
310 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
311 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
314 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
315 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
316 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
317 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
320 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
323 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
324 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
325 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
328 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
329 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
332 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
333 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
334 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
335 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
336 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
337 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
338 their <file>.la</file> files.
341 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
342 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
343 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
344 thread-safe if the library supports this.
347 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
348 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
349 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
350 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
351 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
354 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
355 logrotate rules is now recommended.
358 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
359 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
361 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
362 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
363 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
364 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
365 for the corresponding manual page.
368 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
369 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
370 executables in those subdirectories.
373 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
374 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
379 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
385 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
386 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
387 Date control field is now precisely specified.
390 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
391 particular field name.
393 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
394 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
395 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
396 documented and recommended.
398 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
399 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
400 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
401 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
402 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
403 for <file>.changes</file> files.
406 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
410 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
413 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
414 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
415 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
416 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
420 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
421 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
422 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
423 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
424 question, but should avoid this if possible.
426 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
427 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
428 files between packages.
431 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
432 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
433 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
436 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
437 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
440 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
441 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
442 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
443 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
446 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
448 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
449 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
450 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
453 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
454 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
455 It should instead be included directly
456 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
457 common-licenses for the time being.
460 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
461 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
462 template instead of a string to allow translation.
465 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
466 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
467 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
468 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
469 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
472 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
473 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
474 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
478 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
485 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
486 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
487 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
490 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
491 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
494 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
495 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
499 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
505 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
506 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
509 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
510 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
511 may be used in different versions of the field.
514 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
515 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
518 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
521 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
522 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
523 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
524 using them should be built with RPATH.
527 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
528 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
529 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
530 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
533 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
534 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
537 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
538 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
539 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
543 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
544 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
545 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
546 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
547 support partial upgrades.
550 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
551 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
555 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
562 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
563 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
564 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
565 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
569 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
570 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
571 back on other methods.
574 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
578 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
579 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
582 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
583 <file>/var/mail</file>.
586 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
590 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
591 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
595 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
602 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
603 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
604 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
607 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
610 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
614 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
615 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
618 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
619 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
622 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
625 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
626 with no preceding whitespace.
629 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
630 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
631 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
632 behavior of the init system in Debian.
635 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
636 start the daemon again if it's already running.
639 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
640 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
641 subdirectories dynamically.
644 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
645 variable arguments and supports assignment.
648 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
649 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
653 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
660 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
661 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
662 system is now defined by priority.
664 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
665 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
667 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
668 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
669 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
670 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
671 unknown flags be ignored.
673 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
674 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
675 processes if the package supports it
677 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
678 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
681 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
682 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
683 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
684 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
685 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
686 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
689 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
691 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
694 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
695 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
696 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
697 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
698 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
699 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
701 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
702 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
703 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
706 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
707 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
710 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
711 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
714 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
715 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
716 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
717 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
718 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
719 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
722 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
723 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
725 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
726 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
729 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
732 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
739 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
740 anything, even the end of a part.
742 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
743 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
746 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
747 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
749 <tag>menu policy</tag>
750 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
751 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
752 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
753 sections would be more appropriate.
755 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
758 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
759 critical, or emergency.
761 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
762 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
763 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
766 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
767 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
768 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
770 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
771 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
774 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
780 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
781 should to a must)</item>
784 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
790 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
793 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
800 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
801 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
802 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
803 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
804 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
805 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
808 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
809 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
810 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
813 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
820 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
821 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
822 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
824 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
825 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
827 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
828 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
829 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
830 etc. may be of interest.
831 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
832 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
833 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
834 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
835 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
836 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
837 as well, to prepare for future changes.
839 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
840 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
841 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
844 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
845 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
847 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
848 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
849 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
850 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
854 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
861 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
864 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
865 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
866 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
869 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
870 allow packages to share image files with the web server
874 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
881 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
882 user prompts are now deprecated.
885 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
892 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
893 the minor version number:
895 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
896 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
897 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
898 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
899 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
900 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
901 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
902 deb-building tool-chain.
904 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
905 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
906 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
907 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
909 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
910 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
911 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
912 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
913 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
914 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
915 sections about changelog files.
916 <tag>menu policy</tag>
917 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
920 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
922 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
923 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
925 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
929 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
936 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
937 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
940 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
941 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
944 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
951 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
952 full details of the long description format.
954 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
955 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
956 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
958 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
959 the init script should start the service.
961 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
962 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
963 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
966 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
973 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
974 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
975 documented in the changelog file.
977 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
978 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
980 <tag>menu policy</tag>
981 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
982 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
983 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
985 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
986 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
990 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
997 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
998 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1000 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1003 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1004 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1006 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1007 they add themselves as an alternative for
1008 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1010 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1011 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1012 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1013 environment variable.
1015 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1016 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1017 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1018 review the new rules.
1020 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1021 scripts. Long rationale.
1025 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1026 rules, please see below
1029 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1036 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1039 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1040 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1042 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1043 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1045 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1046 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1047 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1048 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1050 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1051 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1054 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1061 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1062 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1063 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1066 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1067 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1068 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1071 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1072 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1075 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1076 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1079 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1082 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1085 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1089 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1091 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1092 fonts for the X Window System
1095 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1098 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1099 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1102 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1103 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1108 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1109 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1113 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1114 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1115 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1118 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1119 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1120 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1125 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1126 <p> Released Apr 2001
1130 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1131 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1134 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1135 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1136 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1137 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1141 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1143 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1147 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1148 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1149 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1153 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1155 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1159 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1160 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1164 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1166 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1170 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1171 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1175 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1177 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1181 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1182 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1183 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1186 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1187 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1188 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1189 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1192 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1197 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1199 <p> Released Aug 00.
1203 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1204 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1205 and the other without
1209 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1211 <p> Released Aug 00.
1215 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1216 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1217 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1220 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1221 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1222 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1225 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1226 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1229 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1233 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1235 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1237 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1238 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1239 calculation guidelines)
1242 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1244 <item>X application defaults </item>
1248 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1252 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1254 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1255 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1260 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1262 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1266 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1267 etc. Should not affect many packages
1271 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1273 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1277 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1278 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1282 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1284 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1285 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1286 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1289 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1290 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1291 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1292 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1296 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1297 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1298 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1299 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1302 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1303 <file>/var/lib</file>
1305 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1306 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1308 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1311 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1312 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1316 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1317 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1318 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1321 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1326 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1328 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1332 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1333 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1334 files must go in the run-time library package
1338 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1340 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1344 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1345 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1349 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1350 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1353 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1354 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1355 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1356 other major licenses
1359 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1360 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1363 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1366 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1369 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1370 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1371 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1374 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1375 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1376 installed setgid utmp
1380 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1383 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1385 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1389 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1391 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1392 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1393 Section 5 and Section 6.
1395 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1396 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1397 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1398 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1399 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1403 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1404 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1405 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1406 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1408 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1409 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1411 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1412 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1414 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1415 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1417 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1422 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1424 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1426 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1428 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1429 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1430 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1431 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1434 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1435 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1436 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1440 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1442 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1443 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1444 installs shared libraries
1445 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1449 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1451 <p> Released Jan 1998
1454 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1456 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1457 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1459 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1460 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1464 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1465 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1466 file extension as the referenced file
1469 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1470 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1471 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1474 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1476 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1477 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1478 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1482 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1483 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1484 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1487 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1488 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1489 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1490 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1494 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1495 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1499 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1500 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1501 reasonable default configuration
1504 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1505 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1506 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1509 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1511 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1512 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1514 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1515 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1519 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1520 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1525 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1527 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1530 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1531 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1532 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1535 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1536 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1539 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1542 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1544 <p> Released July 1997.
1547 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1550 where <arch> is one of the following:
1551 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1554 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1556 <item>user ID's</item>
1558 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1560 <item>cron jobs</item>
1562 <item>device files</item>
1564 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1566 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1569 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1571 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1574 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1577 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1579 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1581 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1583 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1587 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1589 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1592 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1595 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1597 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1600 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1602 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1603 without consultation </item>
1605 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1608 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1610 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1613 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>