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 </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="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
44 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
45 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
48 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
49 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
50 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
53 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
54 list of architectures must be non-empty.
57 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
58 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
59 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
60 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
61 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
62 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
63 should be stored in a temporary file system.
66 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
67 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
68 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
72 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
73 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
74 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
75 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
76 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable prefix.
79 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
82 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
83 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
86 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
87 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
88 they have been removed.
91 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
92 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
93 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
96 <item>Retire this separate document and merge its (short) contents into
97 Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the requirements.
100 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
101 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
104 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
105 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
109 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
112 Released April, 2011.
116 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
117 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
121 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
122 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
123 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
124 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
127 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
128 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
129 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
133 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
134 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
135 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
136 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
140 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
143 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
144 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
145 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
146 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
150 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
151 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
152 dependencies are now a should not.
155 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
156 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
157 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
158 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
159 actions if their dependencies are not available.
162 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
163 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
166 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
167 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
168 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
169 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
170 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
173 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
174 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
175 POSIX-required interface.
179 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
186 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
187 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
191 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
192 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
193 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
196 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
197 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
198 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
201 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
202 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
203 architecture-independent.
206 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
207 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
208 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
211 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
212 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
213 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
214 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
217 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
220 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
221 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
222 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
225 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
226 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
229 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
230 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
231 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
232 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
233 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
234 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
235 their <file>.la</file> files.
238 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
239 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
240 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
241 thread-safe if the library supports this.
244 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
245 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
246 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
247 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
248 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
251 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
252 logrotate rules is now recommended.
255 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
256 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
258 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
259 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
260 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
261 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
262 for the corresponding manual page.
265 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
266 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
267 executables in those subdirectories.
270 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
271 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
276 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
282 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
283 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
284 Date control field is now precisely specified.
287 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
288 particular field name.
290 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
291 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
292 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
293 documented and recommended.
295 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
296 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
297 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
298 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
299 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
300 for <file>.changes</file> files.
303 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
307 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
310 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
311 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
312 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
313 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
317 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
318 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
319 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
320 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
321 question, but should avoid this if possible.
323 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
324 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
325 files between packages.
328 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
329 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
330 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
333 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
334 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
337 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
338 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
339 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
340 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
343 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
345 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
346 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
347 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
350 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
351 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
352 It should instead be included directly
353 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
354 common-licenses for the time being.
357 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
358 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
359 template instead of a string to allow translation.
362 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
363 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
364 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
365 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
366 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
369 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
370 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
371 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
375 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
382 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
383 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
384 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
387 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
388 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
391 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
392 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
396 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
402 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
403 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
406 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
407 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
408 may be used in different versions of the field.
411 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
412 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
415 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
418 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
419 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
420 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
421 using them should be built with RPATH.
424 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
425 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
426 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
427 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
430 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
431 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
434 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
435 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
436 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
440 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
441 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
442 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
443 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
444 support partial upgrades.
447 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
448 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
452 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
459 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
460 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
461 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
462 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
466 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
467 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
468 back on other methods.
471 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
475 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
476 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
479 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
480 <file>/var/mail</file>.
483 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
487 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
488 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
492 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
499 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
500 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
501 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
504 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
507 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
511 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
512 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
515 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
516 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
519 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
522 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
523 with no preceding whitespace.
526 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
527 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
528 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
529 behavior of the init system in Debian.
532 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
533 start the daemon again if it's already running.
536 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
537 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
538 subdirectories dynamically.
541 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
542 variable arguments and supports assignment.
545 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
546 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
550 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
557 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
558 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
559 system is now defined by priority.
561 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
562 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
564 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
565 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
566 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
567 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
568 unknown flags be ignored.
570 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
571 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
572 processes if the package supports it
574 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
575 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
578 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
579 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
580 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
581 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
582 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
583 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
586 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
588 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
591 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
592 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
593 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
594 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
595 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
596 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
598 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
599 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
600 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
603 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
604 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
607 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
608 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
611 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
612 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
613 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
614 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
615 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
616 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
619 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
620 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
622 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
623 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
626 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
629 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
636 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
637 anything, even the end of a part.
639 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
640 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
643 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
644 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
646 <tag>menu policy</tag>
647 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
648 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
649 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
650 sections would be more appropriate.
652 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
655 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
656 critical, or emergency.
658 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
659 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
660 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
663 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
664 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
665 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
667 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
668 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
671 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
677 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
678 should to a must)</item>
681 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
687 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
690 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
697 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
698 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
699 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
700 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
701 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
702 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
705 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
706 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
707 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
710 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
717 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
718 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
719 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
721 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
722 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
724 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
725 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
726 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
727 etc. may be of interest.
728 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
729 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
730 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
731 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
732 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
733 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
734 as well, to prepare for future changes.
736 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
737 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
738 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
741 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
742 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
744 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
745 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
746 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
747 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
751 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
758 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
761 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
762 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
763 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
766 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
767 allow packages to share image files with the web server
771 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
778 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
779 user prompts are now deprecated.
782 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
789 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
790 the minor version number:
792 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
793 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
794 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
795 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
796 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
797 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
798 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
799 deb-building tool-chain.
801 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
802 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
803 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
804 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
806 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
807 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
808 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
809 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
810 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
811 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
812 sections about changelog files.
813 <tag>menu policy</tag>
814 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
817 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
819 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
820 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
822 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
826 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
833 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
834 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
837 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
838 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
841 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
848 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
849 full details of the long description format.
851 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
852 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
853 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
855 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
856 the init script should start the service.
858 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
859 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
860 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
863 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
870 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
871 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
872 documented in the changelog file.
874 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
875 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
877 <tag>menu policy</tag>
878 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
879 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
880 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
882 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
883 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
887 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
894 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
895 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
897 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
900 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
901 special Tasks: field in the control file.
903 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
904 they add themselves as an alternative for
905 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
907 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
908 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
909 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
910 environment variable.
912 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
913 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
914 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
915 review the new rules.
917 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
918 scripts. Long rationale.
922 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
923 rules, please see below
926 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
933 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
936 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
937 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
939 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
940 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
942 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
943 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
944 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
945 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
947 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
948 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
951 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
958 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
959 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
960 symlinks or .so pages to do this
963 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
964 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
965 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
968 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
969 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
972 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
973 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
976 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
979 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
982 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
986 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
988 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
989 fonts for the X Window System
992 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
995 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
996 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
999 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1000 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1005 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1006 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1010 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1011 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1012 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1015 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1016 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1017 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1022 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1023 <p> Released Apr 2001
1027 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1028 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1031 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1032 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1033 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1034 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1038 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1040 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1044 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1045 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1046 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1050 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1052 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1056 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1057 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1061 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1063 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1067 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1068 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1072 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1074 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1078 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1079 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1080 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1083 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1084 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1085 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1086 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1089 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1094 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1096 <p> Released Aug 00.
1100 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1101 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1102 and the other without
1106 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1108 <p> Released Aug 00.
1112 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1113 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1114 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1117 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1118 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1119 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1122 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1123 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1126 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1130 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1132 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1134 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1135 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1136 calculation guidelines)
1139 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1141 <item>X application defaults </item>
1145 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1149 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1151 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1152 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1157 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1159 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1163 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1164 etc. Should not affect many packages
1168 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1170 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1174 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1175 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1179 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1181 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1182 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1183 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1186 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1187 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1188 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1189 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1193 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1194 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1195 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1196 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1199 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1200 <file>/var/lib</file>
1202 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1203 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1205 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1208 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1209 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1213 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1214 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1215 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1218 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1223 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1225 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1229 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1230 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1231 files must go in the run-time library package
1235 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1237 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1241 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1242 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1246 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1247 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1250 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1251 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1252 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1253 other major licenses
1256 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1257 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1260 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1263 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1266 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1267 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1268 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1271 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1272 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1273 installed setgid utmp
1277 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1280 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1282 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1286 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1288 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1289 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1290 Section 5 and Section 6.
1292 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1293 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1294 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1295 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1296 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1300 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1301 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1302 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1303 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1305 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1306 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1308 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1309 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1311 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1312 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1314 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1319 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1321 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1323 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1325 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1326 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1327 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1328 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1331 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1332 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1333 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1337 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1339 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1340 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1341 installs shared libraries
1342 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1346 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1348 <p> Released Jan 1998
1351 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1353 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1354 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1356 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1357 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1361 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1362 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1363 file extension as the referenced file
1366 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1367 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1368 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1371 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1373 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1374 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1375 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1379 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1380 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1381 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1384 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1385 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1386 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1387 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1391 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1392 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1396 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1397 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1398 reasonable default configuration
1401 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1402 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1403 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1406 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1408 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1409 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1411 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1412 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1416 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1417 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1422 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1424 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1427 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1428 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1429 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1432 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1433 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1436 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1439 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1441 <p> Released July 1997.
1444 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1447 where <arch> is one of the following:
1448 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1451 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1453 <item>user ID's</item>
1455 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1457 <item>cron jobs</item>
1459 <item>device files</item>
1461 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1463 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1466 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1468 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1471 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1474 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1476 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1478 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1480 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1484 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1486 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1489 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1492 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1494 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1497 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1499 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1500 without consultation </item>
1502 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1505 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1507 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1510 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>