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 3.9.2.0
44 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
45 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
49 <item>Clarify the duties of a maintainer, require that the maintainer
50 address accept mail from Debian role accounts and the BTS, and require
51 at least one human with their personal email address
52 in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email address.
55 <item>Document the <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field.
58 <item>Document the system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during
59 each possible invocation. In several less-common cases, this is
60 stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with complex
61 maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
65 <item>Better document the impact on system state when maintainer scripts
66 that are part of a circular dependency are run. Circular dependencies
70 <item>Document the system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn>
71 and <prgn>prerm</prgn> scripts are run, and better document the special
72 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn>
73 scripts. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
74 actions if their dependencies are not available.
77 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
78 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
81 <item><tt>mailx</tt> added as a virtual package provided by packages
82 that install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
83 POSIX-required interface.
86 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
87 <file>/url/lib</file> must use the value returned by
88 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
89 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
90 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
94 <sect> Version 3.9.1.0
101 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
102 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
106 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
107 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
108 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
111 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
112 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
113 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
116 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
117 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
118 architecture-independent.
121 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
122 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
123 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
126 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
127 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
128 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
129 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
132 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
135 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
136 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
137 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
140 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
141 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
144 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
145 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
146 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
147 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
148 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
149 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
150 their <file>.la</file> files.
153 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
154 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
155 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
156 thread-safe if the library supports this.
159 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
160 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
161 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
162 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
163 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
166 <item>Recommend <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
170 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
171 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
173 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
174 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
175 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
176 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
177 for the corresponding manual page.
180 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
181 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
182 executables in those subdirectories.
185 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
186 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
191 <sect> Version 3.9.0.0
197 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
198 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
199 Date control field is now precisely specified.
202 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
203 particular field name.
205 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
206 <item>Document and recommend the <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
207 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields in <file>*.dsc</file>
208 and <file>*.changes</file> files.
210 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
211 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
212 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
213 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
214 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
215 for <file>.changes</file> files.
218 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
222 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
225 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
226 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
227 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
228 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
232 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
233 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
234 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
235 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
236 question, but should avoid this if possible.
238 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
239 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
240 files between packages.
243 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
244 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
245 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
248 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
249 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
252 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
253 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
254 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
255 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
258 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
260 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
261 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
262 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
265 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
266 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
267 It should instead be included directly
268 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
269 common-licenses for the time being.
272 <item>Add <tt>SETTITLE</tt> (which has been supported for some time).
273 Like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a template instead of a string to allow
277 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
278 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
279 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
280 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
281 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
284 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
285 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
286 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
290 <sect> Version 3.8.4.0
297 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
298 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
299 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
302 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
303 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
306 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
307 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
311 <sect> Version 3.8.3.0
317 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
318 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
321 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
322 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
323 may be used in different versions of the field.
326 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
327 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
330 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
333 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
334 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
335 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
336 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
339 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
340 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
341 into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
344 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
345 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
348 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
349 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
350 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
354 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
355 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
356 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
357 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
358 support partial upgrades.
361 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
362 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
366 <sect> Version 3.8.2.0
373 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
374 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
375 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
376 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
380 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
381 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
382 back on other methods.
385 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
389 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
390 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
393 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
394 <file>/var/mail</file>.
397 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
401 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
402 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
406 <sect> Version 3.8.1.0
413 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
414 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
415 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
418 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
421 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
425 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
426 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
429 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
430 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
433 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
436 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
437 preceding whitespace.
440 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
441 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
442 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
443 behavior of the init system in Debian.
446 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
447 start the daemon again if it's already running.
450 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
451 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
452 subdirectories dynamically.
455 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
456 variable arguments and supports assignment.
459 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
460 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
464 <sect> Version 3.8.0.0
471 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
472 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
473 system is now defined by priority.
475 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
476 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
478 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
479 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
480 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
481 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
482 unknown flags be ignored.
484 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
485 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
486 processes if the package supports it
488 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
489 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
492 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
493 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
494 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
495 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
496 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
497 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
500 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
502 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
505 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
506 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
507 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
508 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
509 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
510 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
512 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
513 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
514 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
517 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
518 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
521 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
522 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
525 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
526 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
527 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
528 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
529 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
530 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
533 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
534 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
536 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
537 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
540 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
543 <sect> Version 3.7.3.0
550 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
551 anything, even the end of a part.
553 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
554 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
557 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
558 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
560 <tag>menu policy</tag>
561 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
562 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
563 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
564 sections would be more appropriate.
566 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
569 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
570 critical, or emergency.
572 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
573 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
574 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
577 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
578 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
579 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
581 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
582 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
585 <sect> Version 3.7.2.2
591 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
592 should to a must)</item>
595 <sect> Version 3.7.2.0
601 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
604 <sect> Version 3.7.1.0
611 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
612 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
613 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
614 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
615 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
616 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
619 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
620 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
621 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
624 <sect> Version 3.7.0.0
631 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
632 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
633 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
635 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
636 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
638 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
639 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
640 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
641 etc. may be of interest.
642 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
643 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
644 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
645 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
646 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
647 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
648 as well, to prepare for future changes.
650 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
651 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
652 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
655 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
656 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
658 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
659 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
660 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
661 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
665 <sect> Version 3.6.2.0
672 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
675 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
676 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
677 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
680 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
681 allow packages to share image files with the web server
685 <sect> Version 3.6.1.0
692 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
693 user prompts are now deprecated.
703 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
704 the minor version number:
706 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
707 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
708 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
709 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
710 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
711 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
712 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
713 deb-building tool-chain.
715 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
716 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
717 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
718 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
720 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
721 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
722 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
723 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
724 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
725 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
726 sections about changelog files.
727 <tag>menu policy</tag>
728 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
731 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
733 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
734 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
736 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
740 <sect> Version 3.5.10
747 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
748 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
751 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
752 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
755 <sect> Version 3.5.9.0
762 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
763 full details of the long description format.
765 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
766 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
767 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
769 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
770 the init script should start the service.
772 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
773 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
774 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
777 <sect> Version 3.5.8.0
784 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
785 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
786 documented in the changelog file.
788 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
789 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
791 <tag>menu policy</tag>
792 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
793 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
794 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
796 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
797 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
801 <sect> Version 3.5.7.0
808 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
809 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
811 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
814 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
815 special Tasks: field in the control file.
817 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
818 they add themselves as an alternative for
819 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
821 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
822 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
823 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
824 environment variable.
826 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
827 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
828 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
829 review the new rules.
831 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
832 scripts. Long rationale.
836 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
837 rules, please see below
840 <sect> Version 3.5.6.0
847 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
850 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
851 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
853 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
854 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
856 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
857 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
858 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
859 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
861 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
862 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
865 <sect> Version 3.5.5.0
872 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
873 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
874 symlinks or .so pages to do this
877 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
878 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
879 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
882 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
883 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
886 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
887 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
890 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
893 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
896 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
900 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
902 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
903 fonts for the X Window System
906 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
909 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
910 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
913 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
914 OSF/Motif-linked ones
919 <sect> Version 3.5.4.0
920 <p> Released Apr 2001.
924 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
925 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
926 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
929 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
930 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
931 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
936 <sect> Version 3.5.3.0
937 <p> Released Apr 2001
941 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
942 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
945 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
946 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
947 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
948 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
952 <sect> Version 3.5.2.0
954 <p> Released Feb 2001.
958 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
959 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
960 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
964 <sect> Version 3.5.1.0
966 <p> Released Feb 2001.
970 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
971 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
975 <sect> Version 3.5.0.0
977 <p> Released Jan 2001.
981 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
982 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
986 <sect> Version 3.2.1.1
988 <p> Released Jan 2001.
992 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
993 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
994 <file>/etc/default/</file>
997 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
998 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
999 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1000 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1003 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1008 <sect> Version 3.2.1.0
1010 <p> Released Aug 00.
1014 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1015 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1016 and the other without
1020 <sect> Version 3.2.0.0
1022 <p> Released Aug 00.
1026 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1027 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1028 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1031 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1032 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1033 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1036 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1037 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1040 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1044 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1046 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1048 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1049 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1050 calculation guidelines)
1053 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1055 <item>X application defaults </item>
1059 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1063 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1065 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1066 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1071 <sect> Version 3.1.1.0
1073 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1077 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1078 etc. Should not affect many packages
1082 <sect> Version 3.1.0.0
1084 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1088 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1089 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1093 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1095 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1096 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1097 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1100 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1101 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1102 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1103 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1107 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1108 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1109 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1110 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1113 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1114 <file>/var/lib</file>
1116 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1117 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1119 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1122 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1123 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1127 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1128 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1129 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1132 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1137 <sect> Version 3.0.1.0
1139 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1143 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1144 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1145 files must go in the run-time library package
1149 <sect> Version 3.0.0.0
1151 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1155 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1156 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1160 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1161 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1164 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1165 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1166 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1167 other major licenses
1170 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1171 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1174 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1177 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1180 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1181 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1182 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1185 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1186 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1187 installed setgid utmp
1191 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1194 <sect> Version 2.5.0.0
1196 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1200 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1202 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1203 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1204 Section 5 and Section 6.
1206 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1207 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1208 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1209 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1210 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1214 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1215 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1216 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1217 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1219 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1220 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1222 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1223 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1225 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1226 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1228 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1233 <sect> Version 2.4.1.0
1235 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1237 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1239 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1240 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1241 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1242 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1245 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1246 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1247 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1251 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1253 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1254 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1255 installs shared libraries
1256 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1260 <sect> Version 2.4.0.0
1262 <p> Released Jan 1998
1265 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1267 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1268 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1270 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1271 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1275 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1276 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1277 file extension as the referenced file
1280 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1281 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1282 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1285 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1287 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1288 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1289 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1293 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1294 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1295 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1298 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1299 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1300 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1301 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1305 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1306 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1310 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1311 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1312 reasonable default configuration
1315 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1316 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1317 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1320 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1322 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1323 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1325 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1326 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1330 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1331 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1336 <sect> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1338 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1341 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1342 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1343 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1346 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1347 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1350 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1353 <sect> Version 2.2.0.0
1355 <p> Released July 1997.
1358 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1361 where <arch> is one of the following:
1362 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1365 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1367 <item>user ID's</item>
1369 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1371 <item>cron jobs</item>
1373 <item>device files</item>
1375 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1377 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1380 <sect> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1382 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1385 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1388 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1390 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1392 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1394 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1398 <sect> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1400 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1403 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1406 <sect> Version 2.1.1.0
1408 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1411 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1413 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1414 without consultation </item>
1416 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1419 <sect> Version 2.1.0.0
1421 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1424 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>