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> Version 3.9.1.0
44 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
45 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
49 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
50 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
51 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
54 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
55 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
56 architecture-independent.
59 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
60 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
61 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
64 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
65 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
66 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
67 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
69 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
70 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
71 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
74 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
75 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
78 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
79 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
80 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
81 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
82 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
83 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
84 their <file>.la</file> files.
87 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
88 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
89 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
90 thread-safe if the library supports this.
92 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
93 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
94 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
95 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
96 for the corresponding manual page.
99 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
100 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
101 executables in those subdirectories.
104 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
105 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
110 <sect> Version 3.9.0.0
116 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
117 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
118 Date control field is now precisely specified.
121 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
122 particular field name.
124 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
125 <item>Document and recommend the <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
126 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields in <file>*.dsc</file>
127 and <file>*.changes</file> files.
129 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
130 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
131 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
132 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
133 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
134 for <file>.changes</file> files.
137 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
141 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
144 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
145 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
146 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
147 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
151 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
152 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
153 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
154 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
155 question, but should avoid this if possible.
157 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
158 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
159 files between packages.
162 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
163 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
164 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
167 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
168 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
171 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
172 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
173 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
174 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
177 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
179 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
180 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
181 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
184 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
185 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
186 It should instead be included directly
187 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
188 common-licenses for the time being.
191 <item>Add <tt>SETTITLE</tt> (which has been supported for some time).
192 Like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a template instead of a string to allow
196 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
197 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
198 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
199 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
200 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
203 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
204 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
205 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
209 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
216 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
217 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
218 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
221 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
222 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
225 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
226 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
230 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
236 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
237 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
240 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
241 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
242 may be used in different versions of the field.
245 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
246 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
249 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
252 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
253 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
254 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
255 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
258 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
259 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
260 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
263 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
264 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
267 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
268 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
269 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
273 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
274 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
275 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
276 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
277 support partial upgrades.
280 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
281 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
285 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
292 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
293 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
294 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
295 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
299 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
300 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
301 back on other methods.
304 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
308 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
309 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
312 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
313 <file>/var/mail</file>.
316 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
320 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
321 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
325 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
332 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
333 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
334 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
337 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
340 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
344 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
345 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
348 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
349 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
352 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
355 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
356 preceding whitespace.
359 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
360 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
361 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
362 behavior of the init system in Debian.
365 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
366 start the daemon again if it's already running.
369 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
370 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
371 subdirectories dynamically.
374 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
375 variable arguments and supports assignment.
378 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
379 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
383 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
390 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
391 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
392 system is now defined by priority.
394 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
395 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
397 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
398 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
399 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
400 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
401 unknown flags be ignored.
403 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
404 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
405 processes if the package supports it
407 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
408 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
411 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
412 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
413 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
414 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
415 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
416 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
419 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
421 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
424 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
425 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
426 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
427 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
428 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
429 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
431 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
432 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
433 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
436 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
437 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
440 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
441 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
444 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
445 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
446 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
447 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
448 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
449 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
452 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
453 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
455 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
456 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
459 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
462 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
469 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
470 anything, even the end of a part.
472 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
473 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
476 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
477 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
479 <tag>menu policy</tag>
480 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
481 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
482 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
483 sections would be more appropriate.
485 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
488 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
489 critical, or emergency.
491 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
492 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
493 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
496 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
497 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
498 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
500 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
501 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
504 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
510 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
511 should to a must)</item>
514 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
520 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
523 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
530 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
531 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
532 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
533 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
534 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
535 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
538 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
539 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
540 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
543 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
550 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
551 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
552 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
554 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
555 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
557 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
558 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
559 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
560 etc. may be of interest.
561 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
562 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
563 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
564 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
565 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
566 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
567 as well, to prepare for future changes.
569 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
570 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
571 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
574 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
575 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
577 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
578 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
579 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
580 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
584 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
591 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
594 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
595 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
596 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
599 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
600 allow packages to share image files with the web server
604 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
611 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
612 user prompts are now deprecated.
622 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
623 the minor version number:
625 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
626 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
627 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
628 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
629 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
630 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
631 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
632 deb-building tool-chain.
634 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
635 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
636 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
637 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
639 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
640 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
641 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
642 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
643 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
644 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
645 sections about changelog files.
646 <tag>menu policy</tag>
647 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
650 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
652 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
653 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
655 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
659 <sect> Version 3.5.10
666 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
667 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
670 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
671 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
674 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
681 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
682 full details of the long description format.
684 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
685 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
686 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
688 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
689 the init script should start the service.
691 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
692 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
693 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
696 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
703 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
704 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
705 documented in the changelog file.
707 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
708 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
710 <tag>menu policy</tag>
711 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
712 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
713 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
715 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
716 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
720 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
727 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
728 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
730 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
733 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
734 special Tasks: field in the control file.
736 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
737 they add themselves as an alternative for
738 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
740 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
741 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
742 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
743 environment variable.
745 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
746 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
747 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
748 review the new rules.
750 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
751 scripts. Long rationale.
755 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
756 rules, please see below
759 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
766 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
769 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
770 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
772 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
773 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
775 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
776 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
777 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
778 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
780 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
781 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
784 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
791 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
792 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
793 symlinks or .so pages to do this
796 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
797 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
798 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
801 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
802 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
805 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
806 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
809 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
812 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
815 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
819 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
821 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
822 fonts for the X Window System
825 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
828 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
829 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
832 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
833 OSF/Motif-linked ones
838 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
839 <p> Released Apr 2001.
843 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
844 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
845 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
848 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
849 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
850 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
855 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
856 <p> Released Apr 2001
860 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
861 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
864 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
865 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
866 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
867 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
871 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
873 <p> Released Feb 2001.
877 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
878 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
879 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
883 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
885 <p> Released Feb 2001.
889 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
890 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
894 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
896 <p> Released Jan 2001.
900 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
901 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
905 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
907 <p> Released Jan 2001.
911 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
912 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
913 <file>/etc/default/</file>
916 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
917 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
918 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
919 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
922 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
927 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
933 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
934 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
935 and the other without
939 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
945 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
946 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
947 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
950 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
951 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
952 should always be generated for the upstream changes
955 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
956 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
959 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
963 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
965 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
967 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
968 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
969 calculation guidelines)
972 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
974 <item>X application defaults </item>
978 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
982 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
984 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
985 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
990 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
992 <p> Released Nov 1999.
996 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
997 etc. Should not affect many packages
1001 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
1003 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1007 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1008 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1012 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1014 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1015 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1016 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1019 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1020 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1021 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1022 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1026 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1027 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1028 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1029 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1032 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1033 <file>/var/lib</file>
1035 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1036 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1038 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1041 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1042 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1046 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1047 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1048 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1051 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1056 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
1058 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1062 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1063 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1064 files must go in the run-time library package
1068 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
1070 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1074 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1075 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1079 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1080 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1083 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1084 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1085 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1086 other major licenses
1089 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1090 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1093 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1096 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1099 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1100 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1101 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1104 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1105 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1106 installed setgid utmp
1110 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1113 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
1115 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1119 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1121 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1122 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1123 Section 5 and Section 6.
1125 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1126 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1127 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1128 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1129 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1133 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1134 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1135 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1136 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1138 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1139 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1141 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1142 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1144 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1145 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1147 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1152 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1154 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1156 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1158 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1159 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1160 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1161 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1164 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1165 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1166 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1170 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1172 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1173 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1174 installs shared libraries
1175 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1179 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1181 <p> Released Jan 1998
1184 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1186 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1187 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1189 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1190 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1194 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1195 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1196 file extension as the referenced file
1199 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1200 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1201 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1204 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1206 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1207 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1208 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1212 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1213 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1214 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1217 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1218 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1219 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1220 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1224 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1225 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1229 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1230 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1231 reasonable default configuration
1234 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1235 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1236 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1239 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1241 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1242 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1244 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1245 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1249 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1250 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1255 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1257 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1260 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1261 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1262 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1265 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1266 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1269 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1272 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1274 <p> Released July 1997.
1277 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1280 where <arch> is one of the following:
1281 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1284 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1286 <item>user ID's</item>
1288 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1290 <item>cron jobs</item>
1292 <item>device files</item>
1294 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1296 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1299 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1301 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1304 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1307 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1309 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1311 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1313 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1317 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1319 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1322 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1325 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1327 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1330 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1332 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1333 without consultation </item>
1335 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1338 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1340 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1343 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>