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="3.9.7.0"> Version 3.9.7.0
44 <item> Symbolic links must not traverse above the root directory.
45 </item> </taglist></p>
47 <sect id="3.9.6.0"> Version 3.9.6.0
50 Released September, 2014.
54 <item> The FHS is relaxed to allow a subdirectory of <file>/usr/lib</file>
55 to hold a mixture of architecture-independent and architecture-dependent
56 files, though directories entirely composed of architecture-independent files
57 should be located in <file>/usr/share</file>.
60 <item>The FHS requirement for <file>/usr/local/lib64</file> to exist
61 if <file>/lib64</file> or <file>/usr/lib64</file> exists is removed.
64 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch include files,
65 permitting header files to instead be installed to
66 <file>/usr/include/triplet</file>.
69 <item> Binaries must not be statically linked with the GNU C library,
70 see policy for exceptions.
73 <item> It is clarified that signature appearing in debian/changelog should be
74 the details of the person who prepared this release of the package.
77 <item> The default web document root is now <file>/var/www/html</file>
80 <item><tt>java1-runtime</tt> and <tt>java2-runtime</tt> are removed,
81 <tt>javaN-runtime</tt> and <tt>javaN-runtime-headless</tt> are added
82 for all N between 5 and 9.
85 <item>Added <tt>httpd-wsgi</tt> for WSGI capable HTTP servers.
88 <item> Perl packages should use the <tt>%Config</tt> hash to locate module
89 paths instead of hardcoding paths in <tt>@INC</tt>.
92 <item> Perl binary modules and any modules installed into
93 <tt>$Config{vendorarch}</tt> must depend on the relevant
94 <package>perlapi-*</package> package.
95 </item> </taglist></p>
97 <sect id="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
100 Released October, 2013.
104 <item>Control data fields must not start with the hyphen character
105 (<tt>-</tt>), to avoid potential confusions when parsing clearsigned control
106 data files that were not properly unescaped.
108 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
109 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
110 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
112 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
113 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
114 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
116 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
117 source control files.
120 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
121 package control files.
124 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
125 source control files.
128 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
131 <item>Packages should remove all obsolete configuration files without
132 local changes during upgrades. The <prgn>dpkg-maintscript-helper</prgn>
133 tool, available from the <package>dpkg</package> package since
134 <em>Wheezy</em>, can help with this.
137 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
138 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
139 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
142 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
143 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
146 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
147 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
148 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
151 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
154 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
157 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
160 Released August, 2012.
164 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
167 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
168 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
171 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
172 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
173 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
176 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
179 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
180 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
181 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
182 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
185 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
186 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
187 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
188 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
189 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
190 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
193 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
194 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
195 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
198 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
199 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
201 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
202 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
205 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
209 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
212 Released February, 2012.
216 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
217 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
220 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
221 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
222 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
225 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
226 list of architectures must be non-empty.
229 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
230 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
231 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
232 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
233 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
234 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
235 should be stored in a temporary file system.
238 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
239 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
240 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
244 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
245 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
246 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
247 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
248 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
251 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
254 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
255 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
258 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
259 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
260 they have been removed.
263 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
264 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
265 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
267 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
268 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
269 file" specification is included.
272 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
273 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
277 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
278 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
281 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
282 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
286 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
289 Released April, 2011.
293 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
294 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
298 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
299 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
300 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
301 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
304 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
305 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
306 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
310 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
311 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
312 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
313 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
317 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
320 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
321 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
322 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
323 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
327 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
328 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
329 dependencies are now a should not.
332 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
333 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
334 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
335 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
336 actions if their dependencies are not available.
339 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
340 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
343 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
344 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
345 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
346 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
347 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
350 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
351 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
352 POSIX-required interface.
356 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
363 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
364 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
368 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
369 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
370 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
373 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
374 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
375 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
378 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
379 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
380 architecture-independent.
383 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
384 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
385 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
388 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
389 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
390 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
391 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
394 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
397 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
398 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
399 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
402 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
403 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
406 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
407 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
408 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
409 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
410 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
411 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
412 their <file>.la</file> files.
415 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
416 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
417 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
418 thread-safe if the library supports this.
421 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
422 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
423 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
424 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
425 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
428 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
429 logrotate rules is now recommended.
432 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
433 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
435 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
436 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
437 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
438 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
439 for the corresponding manual page.
442 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
443 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
444 executables in those subdirectories.
447 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
448 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
453 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
459 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
460 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
461 Date control field is now precisely specified.
464 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
465 particular field name.
467 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
468 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
469 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
470 documented and recommended.
472 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
473 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
474 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
475 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
476 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
477 for <file>.changes</file> files.
480 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
484 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
487 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
488 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
489 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
490 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
494 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
495 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
496 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
497 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
498 question, but should avoid this if possible.
500 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
501 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
502 files between packages.
505 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
506 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
507 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
510 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
511 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
514 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
515 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
516 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
517 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
520 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
522 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
523 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
524 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
527 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
528 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
529 It should instead be included directly
530 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
531 common-licenses for the time being.
534 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
535 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
536 template instead of a string to allow translation.
539 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
540 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
541 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
542 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
543 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
546 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
547 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
548 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
552 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
559 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
560 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
561 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
564 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
565 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
568 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
569 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
573 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
579 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
580 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
583 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
584 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
585 may be used in different versions of the field.
588 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
589 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
592 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
595 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
596 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
597 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
598 using them should be built with RPATH.
601 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
602 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
603 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
604 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
607 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
608 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
611 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
612 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
613 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
617 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
618 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
619 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
620 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
621 support partial upgrades.
624 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
625 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
629 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
636 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
637 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
638 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
639 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
643 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
644 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
645 back on other methods.
648 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
652 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
653 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
656 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
657 <file>/var/mail</file>.
660 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
664 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
665 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
669 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
676 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
677 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
678 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
681 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
684 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
688 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
689 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
692 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
693 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
696 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
699 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
700 with no preceding whitespace.
703 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
704 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
705 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
706 behavior of the init system in Debian.
709 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
710 start the daemon again if it's already running.
713 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
714 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
715 subdirectories dynamically.
718 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
719 variable arguments and supports assignment.
722 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
723 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
727 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
734 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
735 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
736 system is now defined by priority.
738 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
739 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
741 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
742 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
743 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
744 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
745 unknown flags be ignored.
747 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
748 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
749 processes if the package supports it
751 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
752 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
755 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
756 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
757 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
758 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
759 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
760 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
763 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
765 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
768 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
769 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
770 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
771 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
772 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
773 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
775 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
776 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
777 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
780 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
781 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
784 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
785 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
788 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
789 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
790 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
791 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
792 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
793 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
796 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
797 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
799 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
800 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
803 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
806 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
813 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
814 anything, even the end of a part.
816 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
817 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
820 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
821 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
823 <tag>menu policy</tag>
824 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
825 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
826 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
827 sections would be more appropriate.
829 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
832 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
833 critical, or emergency.
835 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
836 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
837 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
840 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
841 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
842 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
844 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
845 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
848 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
854 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
855 should to a must)</item>
858 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
864 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
867 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
874 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
875 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
876 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
877 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
878 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
879 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
882 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
883 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
884 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
887 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
894 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
895 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
896 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
898 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
899 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
901 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
902 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
903 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
904 etc. may be of interest.
905 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
906 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
907 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
908 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
909 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
910 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
911 as well, to prepare for future changes.
913 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
914 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
915 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
918 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
919 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
921 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
922 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
923 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
924 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
928 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
935 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
938 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
939 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
940 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
943 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
944 allow packages to share image files with the web server
948 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
955 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
956 user prompts are now deprecated.
959 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
966 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
967 the minor version number:
969 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
970 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
971 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
972 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
973 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
974 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
975 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
976 deb-building tool-chain.
978 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
979 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
980 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
981 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
983 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
984 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
985 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
986 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
987 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
988 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
989 sections about changelog files.
990 <tag>menu policy</tag>
991 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
994 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
996 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
997 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
999 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
1003 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
1010 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
1011 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
1014 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
1015 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
1018 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
1025 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
1026 full details of the long description format.
1028 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
1029 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
1030 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
1032 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
1033 the init script should start the service.
1035 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
1036 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
1037 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
1040 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
1047 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
1048 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
1049 documented in the changelog file.
1051 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
1052 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
1054 <tag>menu policy</tag>
1055 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
1056 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
1057 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
1059 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
1060 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
1064 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1071 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1072 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1074 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1077 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1078 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1080 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1081 they add themselves as an alternative for
1082 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1084 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1085 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1086 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1087 environment variable.
1089 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1090 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1091 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1092 review the new rules.
1094 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1095 scripts. Long rationale.
1099 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1100 rules, please see below
1103 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1110 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1113 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1114 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1116 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1117 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1119 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1120 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1121 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1122 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1124 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1125 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1128 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1135 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1136 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1137 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1140 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1141 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1142 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1145 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1146 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1149 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1150 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1153 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1156 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1159 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1163 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1165 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1166 fonts for the X Window System
1169 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1172 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1173 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1176 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1177 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1182 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1183 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1187 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1188 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1189 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1191 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1192 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1193 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1198 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1199 <p> Released Apr 2001
1203 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1204 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1207 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1208 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1209 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1210 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1214 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1216 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1220 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1221 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1222 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1226 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1228 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1232 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1233 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1237 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1239 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1243 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1244 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1248 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1250 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1254 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1255 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1256 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1259 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1260 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1261 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1262 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1265 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1270 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1272 <p> Released Aug 00.
1276 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1277 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1278 and the other without
1282 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1284 <p> Released Aug 00.
1288 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1289 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1290 package with debugging information optionally.
1293 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1294 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1295 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1298 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1299 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1302 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1306 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1308 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1310 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1311 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1312 calculation guidelines)
1315 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1317 <item>X application defaults </item>
1321 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1325 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1327 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1328 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1333 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1335 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1339 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1340 etc. Should not affect many packages
1344 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1346 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1350 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1351 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1355 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1357 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1358 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1359 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1362 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1363 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1364 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1365 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1369 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1370 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1371 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1372 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1375 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1376 <file>/var/lib</file>
1378 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1379 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1381 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1384 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1385 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1389 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1390 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1391 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1394 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1399 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1401 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1405 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1406 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1407 files must go in the run-time library package
1411 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1413 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1417 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1418 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1422 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1423 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1426 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1427 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1428 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1429 other major licenses
1432 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1433 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1436 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1439 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1442 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1443 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1444 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1447 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1448 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1449 installed setgid utmp
1453 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1456 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1458 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1462 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1464 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1465 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1466 Section 5 and Section 6.
1468 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1469 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1470 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1471 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1472 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1476 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1477 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1478 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1479 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1481 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1482 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1484 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1485 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1487 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1488 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1490 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1495 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1497 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1499 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1501 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1502 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1503 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1504 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1507 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1508 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1509 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1513 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1515 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1516 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1517 installs shared libraries
1518 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1522 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1524 <p> Released Jan 1998
1527 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1529 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1530 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1532 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1533 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1537 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1538 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1539 file extension as the referenced file
1542 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1543 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1544 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1547 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1549 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1550 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1551 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1555 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1556 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1557 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1560 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1561 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1562 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1563 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1567 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1568 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1572 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1573 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1574 reasonable default configuration
1577 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1578 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1579 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1582 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1584 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1585 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1587 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1588 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1592 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1593 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1598 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1600 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1603 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1604 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1605 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1608 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1609 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1612 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1615 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1617 <p> Released July 1997.
1620 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1623 where <arch> is one of the following:
1624 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1627 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1629 <item>user ID's</item>
1631 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1633 <item>cron jobs</item>
1635 <item>device files</item>
1637 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1639 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1642 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1644 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1647 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1650 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1652 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1654 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1656 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1660 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1662 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1665 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1668 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1670 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1673 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1675 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1676 without consultation </item>
1678 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1681 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1683 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1686 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>