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="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
44 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
47 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
51 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
54 Released February, 2012.
58 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
59 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
62 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
63 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
64 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
67 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
68 list of architectures must be non-empty.
71 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
72 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
73 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
74 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
75 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
76 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
77 should be stored in a temporary file system.
80 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
81 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
82 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
86 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
87 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
88 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
89 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
90 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
93 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
96 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
97 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
100 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
101 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
102 they have been removed.
105 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
106 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
107 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
109 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
110 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
111 file" specification is included.
114 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
115 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
119 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
120 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
123 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
124 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
128 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
131 Released April, 2011.
135 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
136 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
140 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
141 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
142 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
143 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
146 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
147 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
148 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
152 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
153 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
154 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
155 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
159 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
162 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
163 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
164 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
165 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
169 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
170 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
171 dependencies are now a should not.
174 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
175 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
176 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
177 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
178 actions if their dependencies are not available.
181 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
182 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
185 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
186 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
187 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
188 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
189 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
192 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
193 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
194 POSIX-required interface.
198 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
205 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
206 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
210 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
211 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
212 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
215 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
216 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
217 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
220 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
221 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
222 architecture-independent.
225 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
226 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
227 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
230 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
231 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
232 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
233 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
236 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
239 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
240 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
241 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
244 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
245 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
248 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
249 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
250 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
251 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
252 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
253 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
254 their <file>.la</file> files.
257 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
258 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
259 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
260 thread-safe if the library supports this.
263 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
264 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
265 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
266 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
267 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
270 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
271 logrotate rules is now recommended.
274 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
275 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
277 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
278 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
279 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
280 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
281 for the corresponding manual page.
284 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
285 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
286 executables in those subdirectories.
289 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
290 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
295 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
301 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
302 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
303 Date control field is now precisely specified.
306 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
307 particular field name.
309 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
310 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
311 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
312 documented and recommended.
314 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
315 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
316 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
317 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
318 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
319 for <file>.changes</file> files.
322 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
326 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
329 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
330 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
331 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
332 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
336 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
337 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
338 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
339 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
340 question, but should avoid this if possible.
342 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
343 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
344 files between packages.
347 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
348 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
349 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
352 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
353 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
356 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
357 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
358 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
359 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
362 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
364 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
365 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
366 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
369 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
370 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
371 It should instead be included directly
372 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
373 common-licenses for the time being.
376 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
377 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
378 template instead of a string to allow translation.
381 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
382 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
383 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
384 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
385 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
388 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
389 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
390 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
394 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
401 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
402 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
403 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
406 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
407 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
410 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
411 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
415 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
421 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
422 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
425 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
426 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
427 may be used in different versions of the field.
430 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
431 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
434 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
437 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
438 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
439 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
440 using them should be built with RPATH.
443 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
444 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
445 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
446 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
449 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
450 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
453 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
454 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
455 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
459 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
460 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
461 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
462 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
463 support partial upgrades.
466 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
467 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
471 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
478 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
479 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
480 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
481 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
485 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
486 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
487 back on other methods.
490 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
494 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
495 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
498 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
499 <file>/var/mail</file>.
502 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
506 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
507 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
511 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
518 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
519 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
520 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
523 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
526 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
530 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
531 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
534 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
535 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
538 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
541 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
542 with no preceding whitespace.
545 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
546 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
547 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
548 behavior of the init system in Debian.
551 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
552 start the daemon again if it's already running.
555 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
556 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
557 subdirectories dynamically.
560 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
561 variable arguments and supports assignment.
564 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
565 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
569 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
576 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
577 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
578 system is now defined by priority.
580 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
581 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
583 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
584 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
585 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
586 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
587 unknown flags be ignored.
589 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
590 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
591 processes if the package supports it
593 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
594 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
597 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
598 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
599 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
600 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
601 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
602 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
605 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
607 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
610 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
611 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
612 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
613 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
614 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
615 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
617 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
618 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
619 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
622 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
623 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
626 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
627 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
630 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
631 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
632 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
633 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
634 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
635 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
638 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
639 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
641 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
642 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
645 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
648 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
655 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
656 anything, even the end of a part.
658 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
659 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
662 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
663 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
665 <tag>menu policy</tag>
666 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
667 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
668 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
669 sections would be more appropriate.
671 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
674 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
675 critical, or emergency.
677 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
678 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
679 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
682 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
683 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
684 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
686 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
687 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
690 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
696 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
697 should to a must)</item>
700 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
706 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
709 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
716 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
717 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
718 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
719 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
720 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
721 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
724 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
725 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
726 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
729 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
736 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
737 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
738 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
740 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
741 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
743 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
744 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
745 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
746 etc. may be of interest.
747 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
748 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
749 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
750 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
751 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
752 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
753 as well, to prepare for future changes.
755 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
756 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
757 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
760 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
761 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
763 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
764 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
765 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
766 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
770 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
777 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
780 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
781 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
782 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
785 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
786 allow packages to share image files with the web server
790 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
797 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
798 user prompts are now deprecated.
801 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
808 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
809 the minor version number:
811 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
812 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
813 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
814 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
815 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
816 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
817 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
818 deb-building tool-chain.
820 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
821 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
822 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
823 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
825 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
826 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
827 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
828 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
829 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
830 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
831 sections about changelog files.
832 <tag>menu policy</tag>
833 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
836 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
838 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
839 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
841 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
845 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
852 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
853 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
856 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
857 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
860 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
867 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
868 full details of the long description format.
870 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
871 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
872 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
874 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
875 the init script should start the service.
877 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
878 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
879 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
882 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
889 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
890 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
891 documented in the changelog file.
893 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
894 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
896 <tag>menu policy</tag>
897 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
898 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
899 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
901 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
902 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
906 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
913 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
914 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
916 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
919 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
920 special Tasks: field in the control file.
922 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
923 they add themselves as an alternative for
924 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
926 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
927 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
928 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
929 environment variable.
931 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
932 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
933 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
934 review the new rules.
936 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
937 scripts. Long rationale.
941 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
942 rules, please see below
945 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
952 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
955 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
956 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
958 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
959 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
961 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
962 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
963 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
964 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
966 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
967 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
970 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
977 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
978 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
979 symlinks or .so pages to do this
982 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
983 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
984 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
987 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
988 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
991 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
992 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
995 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
998 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1001 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1005 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1007 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1008 fonts for the X Window System
1011 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1014 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1015 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1018 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1019 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1024 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1025 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1029 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1030 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1031 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1034 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1035 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1036 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1041 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1042 <p> Released Apr 2001
1046 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1047 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1050 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1051 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1052 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1053 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1057 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1059 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1063 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1064 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1065 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1069 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1071 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1075 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1076 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1080 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1082 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1086 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1087 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1091 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1093 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1097 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1098 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1099 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1102 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1103 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1104 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1105 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1108 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1113 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1115 <p> Released Aug 00.
1119 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1120 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1121 and the other without
1125 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1127 <p> Released Aug 00.
1131 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1132 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1133 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1136 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1137 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1138 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1141 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1142 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1145 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1149 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1151 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1153 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1154 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1155 calculation guidelines)
1158 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1160 <item>X application defaults </item>
1164 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1168 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1170 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1171 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1176 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1178 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1182 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1183 etc. Should not affect many packages
1187 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1189 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1193 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1194 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1198 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1200 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1201 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1202 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1205 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1206 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1207 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1208 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1212 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1213 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1214 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1215 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1218 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1219 <file>/var/lib</file>
1221 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1222 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1224 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1227 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1228 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1232 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1233 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1234 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1237 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1242 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1244 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1248 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1249 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1250 files must go in the run-time library package
1254 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1256 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1260 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1261 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1265 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1266 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1269 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1270 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1271 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1272 other major licenses
1275 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1276 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1279 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1282 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1285 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1286 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1287 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1290 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1291 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1292 installed setgid utmp
1296 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1299 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1301 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1305 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1307 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1308 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1309 Section 5 and Section 6.
1311 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1312 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1313 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1314 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1315 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1319 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1320 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1321 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1322 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1324 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1325 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1327 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1328 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1330 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1331 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1333 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1338 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1340 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1342 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1344 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1345 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1346 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1347 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1350 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1351 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1352 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1356 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1358 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1359 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1360 installs shared libraries
1361 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1365 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1367 <p> Released Jan 1998
1370 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1372 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1373 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1375 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1376 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1380 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1381 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1382 file extension as the referenced file
1385 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1386 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1387 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1390 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1392 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1393 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1394 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1398 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1399 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1400 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1403 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1404 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1405 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1406 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1410 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1411 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1415 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1416 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1417 reasonable default configuration
1420 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1421 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1422 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1425 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1427 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1428 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1430 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1431 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1435 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1436 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1441 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1443 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1446 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1447 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1448 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1451 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1452 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1455 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1458 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1460 <p> Released July 1997.
1463 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1466 where <arch> is one of the following:
1467 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1470 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1472 <item>user ID's</item>
1474 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1476 <item>cron jobs</item>
1478 <item>device files</item>
1480 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1482 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1485 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1487 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1490 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1493 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1495 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1497 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1499 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1503 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1505 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1508 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1511 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1513 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1516 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1518 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1519 without consultation </item>
1521 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1524 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1526 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1529 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>