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="3.9.6.0"> Version 3.9.6.0
44 <item> The FHS is relaxed to allow a subdirectory of <file>/usr/lib</file>
45 to hold a mixture of architecture-independent and architecture-dependent
46 files, though directories entirely composed of architecture-independent files
47 should be located in <file>/usr/share</file>.
50 <item>The FHS requirement for <file>/usr/local/lib64</file> to exist
51 if <file>/lib64</file> or <file>/usr/lib64</file> exists is removed.
54 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch include files,
55 permitting header files to instead be installed to
56 <file>/usr/include/triplet</file>.
60 <sect id="3.9.5.0"> Version 3.9.5.0
63 Released October, 2013.
67 <item>Control data fields must not start with the hyphen character
68 (<tt>-</tt>), to avoid potential confusions when parsing clearsigned control
69 data files that were not properly unescaped.
71 <tag>5.4, 5.6.24</tag>
72 <item><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are now
73 mandatory in <file>.dsc</file> files.
75 <tag>5.6.25, 5.8.1</tag>
76 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is obsolete. Permissions
77 are now granted via <em>dak-commands</em> files.
79 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-List</tt> field in Debian
83 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Package-Type</tt> field in source
84 package control files.
87 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Dgit</tt> field in Debian
91 <item>The exception to the FHS for the <file>/selinux</file> was removed.
94 <item>Packages should remove all obsolete configuration files without
95 local changes during upgrades. The <prgn>dpkg-maintscript-helper</prgn>
96 tool, available from the <package>dpkg</package> package since
97 <em>Wheezy</em>, can help with this.
100 <item>The name of the files and directories installed by binary packages
101 must be encoded in UTF-8 and should be restricted to ASCII when possible.
102 In the system PATH, they must be restricted to ASCII.
105 <item>Stop recommending to serve HTML documents from
106 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
109 <item>Packages distributing Info documents should use
110 <package>install-info</package>'s trigger, and do not need anymore
111 to depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) | install-info</tt>.
114 <item>The <tt>escape</tt> capability is now documented.
117 <item><tt>mp3-decoder</tt> and <tt>mp3-encoder</tt> are removed.</item>
120 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
123 Released August, 2012.
127 <item>New <em>tasks</em> archive section.
130 <item><tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> are now mandatory
131 targets in <file>debian/rules</file>.
134 <item>New section documenting the <tt>Vcs-*</tt> fields, which are
135 already in widespread use. Note the mechanism for specifying the Git
136 branch used for packaging in the Vcs-Git field.
139 <item>The deprecated relations < and > now must not be used.
142 <item>New <tt>Built-Using</tt> field, which must be used to document the
143 source packages for any binaries that are incorporated into this package
144 at build time. This is used to ensure that the archive meets license
145 requirements for providing source for all binaries.
148 <item>Policy for dependencies between shared libraries and other
149 packages has been largely rewritten to document the <tt>symbols</tt>
150 system and more clearly document handling of shared library ABI
151 changes. <file>symbols</file> files are now recommended
152 over <file>shlibs</file> files in most situations. All maintainers of
153 shared library packages should review the entirety of this section.
156 <item>Packages must not assume the <file>/run</file> directory exists or
157 is usable without a dependency on <tt>initscripts (>= 2.88dsf-13.3)</tt>
158 until the stable release of Debian supports <file>/run</file>.
161 <item>Packages including MIME configuration can now rely on triggers and
162 do not need to call update-mime.</item>
164 <item>New section documenting general requirements for alternate init
165 systems and specific requirements for integrating with upstart.
168 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
172 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
175 Released February, 2012.
179 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
180 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
183 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
184 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
185 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
188 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
189 list of architectures must be non-empty.
192 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
193 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
194 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
195 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
196 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
197 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
198 should be stored in a temporary file system.
201 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
202 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
203 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
207 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
208 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
209 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
210 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
211 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
214 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
217 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
218 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
221 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
222 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
223 they have been removed.
226 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
227 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
228 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
230 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
231 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
232 file" specification is included.
235 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
236 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
240 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
241 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
244 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
245 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
249 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
252 Released April, 2011.
256 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
257 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
261 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
262 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
263 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
264 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
267 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
268 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
269 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
273 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
274 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
275 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
276 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
280 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
283 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
284 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
285 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
286 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
290 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
291 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
292 dependencies are now a should not.
295 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
296 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
297 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
298 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
299 actions if their dependencies are not available.
302 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
303 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
306 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
307 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
308 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
309 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
310 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
313 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
314 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
315 POSIX-required interface.
319 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
326 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
327 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
331 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
332 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
333 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
336 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
337 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
338 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
341 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
342 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
343 architecture-independent.
346 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
347 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
348 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
351 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
352 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
353 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
354 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
357 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
360 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
361 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
362 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
365 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
366 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
369 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
370 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
371 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
372 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
373 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
374 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
375 their <file>.la</file> files.
378 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
379 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
380 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
381 thread-safe if the library supports this.
384 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
385 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
386 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
387 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
388 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
391 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
392 logrotate rules is now recommended.
395 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
396 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
398 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
399 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
400 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
401 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
402 for the corresponding manual page.
405 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
406 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
407 executables in those subdirectories.
410 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
411 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
416 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
422 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
423 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
424 Date control field is now precisely specified.
427 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
428 particular field name.
430 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
431 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
432 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
433 documented and recommended.
435 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
436 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
437 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
438 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
439 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
440 for <file>.changes</file> files.
443 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
447 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
450 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
451 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
452 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
453 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
457 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
458 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
459 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
460 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
461 question, but should avoid this if possible.
463 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
464 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
465 files between packages.
468 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
469 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
470 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
473 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
474 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
477 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
478 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
479 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
480 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
483 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
485 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
486 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
487 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
490 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
491 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
492 It should instead be included directly
493 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
494 common-licenses for the time being.
497 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
498 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
499 template instead of a string to allow translation.
502 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
503 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
504 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
505 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
506 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
509 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
510 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
511 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
515 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
522 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
523 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
524 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
527 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
528 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
531 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
532 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
536 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
542 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
543 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
546 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
547 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
548 may be used in different versions of the field.
551 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
552 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
555 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
558 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
559 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
560 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
561 using them should be built with RPATH.
564 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
565 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
566 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
567 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
570 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
571 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
574 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
575 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
576 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
580 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
581 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
582 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
583 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
584 support partial upgrades.
587 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
588 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
592 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
599 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
600 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
601 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
602 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
606 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
607 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
608 back on other methods.
611 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
615 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
616 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
619 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
620 <file>/var/mail</file>.
623 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
627 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
628 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
632 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
639 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
640 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
641 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
644 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
647 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
651 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
652 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
655 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
656 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
659 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
662 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
663 with no preceding whitespace.
666 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
667 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
668 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
669 behavior of the init system in Debian.
672 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
673 start the daemon again if it's already running.
676 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
677 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
678 subdirectories dynamically.
681 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
682 variable arguments and supports assignment.
685 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
686 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
690 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
697 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
698 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
699 system is now defined by priority.
701 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
702 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
704 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
705 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
706 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
707 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
708 unknown flags be ignored.
710 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
711 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
712 processes if the package supports it
714 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
715 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
718 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
719 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
720 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
721 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
722 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
723 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
726 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
728 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
731 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
732 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
733 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
734 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
735 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
736 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
738 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
739 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
740 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
743 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
744 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
747 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
748 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
751 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
752 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
753 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
754 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
755 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
756 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
759 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
760 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
762 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
763 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
766 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
769 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
776 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
777 anything, even the end of a part.
779 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
780 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
783 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
784 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
786 <tag>menu policy</tag>
787 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
788 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
789 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
790 sections would be more appropriate.
792 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
795 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
796 critical, or emergency.
798 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
799 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
800 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
803 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
804 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
805 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
807 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
808 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
811 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
817 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
818 should to a must)</item>
821 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
827 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
830 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
837 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
838 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
839 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
840 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
841 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
842 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
845 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
846 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
847 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
850 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
857 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
858 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
859 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
861 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
862 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
864 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
865 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
866 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
867 etc. may be of interest.
868 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
869 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
870 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
871 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
872 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
873 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
874 as well, to prepare for future changes.
876 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
877 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
878 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
881 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
882 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
884 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
885 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
886 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
887 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
891 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
898 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
901 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
902 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
903 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
906 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
907 allow packages to share image files with the web server
911 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
918 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
919 user prompts are now deprecated.
922 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
929 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
930 the minor version number:
932 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
933 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
934 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
935 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
936 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
937 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
938 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
939 deb-building tool-chain.
941 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
942 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
943 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
944 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
946 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
947 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
948 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
949 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
950 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
951 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
952 sections about changelog files.
953 <tag>menu policy</tag>
954 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
957 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
959 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
960 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
962 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
966 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
973 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
974 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
977 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
978 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
981 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
988 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
989 full details of the long description format.
991 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
992 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
993 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
995 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
996 the init script should start the service.
998 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
999 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
1000 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
1003 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
1010 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
1011 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
1012 documented in the changelog file.
1014 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
1015 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
1017 <tag>menu policy</tag>
1018 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
1019 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
1020 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
1022 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
1023 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
1027 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
1034 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
1035 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
1037 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
1040 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
1041 special Tasks: field in the control file.
1043 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
1044 they add themselves as an alternative for
1045 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
1047 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
1048 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
1049 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
1050 environment variable.
1052 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
1053 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
1054 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
1055 review the new rules.
1057 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
1058 scripts. Long rationale.
1062 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
1063 rules, please see below
1066 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
1073 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
1076 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
1077 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
1079 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
1080 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
1082 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
1083 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
1084 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
1085 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
1087 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
1088 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
1091 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
1098 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
1099 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
1100 symlinks or .so pages to do this
1103 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
1104 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
1105 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
1108 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
1109 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
1112 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
1113 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
1116 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
1119 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
1122 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1126 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1128 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1129 fonts for the X Window System
1132 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1135 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1136 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1139 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1140 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1145 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1146 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1150 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1151 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1152 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1154 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1155 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1156 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1161 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1162 <p> Released Apr 2001
1166 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1167 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1170 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1171 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1172 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1173 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1177 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1179 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1183 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1184 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1185 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1189 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1191 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1195 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1196 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1200 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1202 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1206 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1207 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1211 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1213 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1217 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1218 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1219 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1222 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1223 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1224 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1225 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1228 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1233 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1235 <p> Released Aug 00.
1239 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1240 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1241 and the other without
1245 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1247 <p> Released Aug 00.
1251 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1252 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1253 package with debugging information optionally.
1256 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1257 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1258 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1261 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1262 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1265 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1269 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1271 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1273 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1274 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1275 calculation guidelines)
1278 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1280 <item>X application defaults </item>
1284 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1288 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1290 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1291 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1296 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1298 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1302 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1303 etc. Should not affect many packages
1307 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1309 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1313 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1314 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1318 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1320 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1321 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1322 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1325 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1326 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1327 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1328 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1332 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1333 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1334 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1335 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1338 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1339 <file>/var/lib</file>
1341 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1342 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1344 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1347 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1348 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1352 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1353 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1354 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1357 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1362 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1364 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1368 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1369 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1370 files must go in the run-time library package
1374 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1376 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1380 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1381 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1385 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1386 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1389 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1390 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1391 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1392 other major licenses
1395 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1396 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1399 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1402 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1405 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1406 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1407 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1410 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1411 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1412 installed setgid utmp
1416 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1419 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1421 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1425 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1427 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1428 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1429 Section 5 and Section 6.
1431 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1432 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1433 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1434 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1435 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1439 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1440 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1441 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1442 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1444 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1445 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1447 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1448 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1450 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1451 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1453 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1458 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1460 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1462 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1464 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1465 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1466 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1467 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1470 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1471 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1472 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1476 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1478 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1479 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1480 installs shared libraries
1481 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1485 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1487 <p> Released Jan 1998
1490 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1492 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1493 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1495 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1496 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1500 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1501 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1502 file extension as the referenced file
1505 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1506 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1507 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1510 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1512 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1513 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1514 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1518 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1519 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1520 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1523 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1524 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1525 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1526 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1530 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1531 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1535 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1536 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1537 reasonable default configuration
1540 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1541 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1542 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1545 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1547 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1548 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1550 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1551 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1555 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1556 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1561 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1563 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1566 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1567 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1568 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1571 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1572 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1575 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1578 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1580 <p> Released July 1997.
1583 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1586 where <arch> is one of the following:
1587 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1590 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1592 <item>user ID's</item>
1594 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1596 <item>cron jobs</item>
1598 <item>device files</item>
1600 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1602 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1605 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1607 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1610 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1613 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1615 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1617 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1619 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1623 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1625 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1628 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1631 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1633 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1636 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1638 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1639 without consultation </item>
1641 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1644 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1646 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1649 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>