1 <!doctype debiandoc system>
5 <title> Policy checklist for upgrading your packages </title>
6 <author> Bill Allombert <email/ballombe@debian.org/ </author>
7 <author> Josip Rodin </author>
8 <author> Julian Gilbey </author>
9 <author> Russ Allbery <email/rra@debian.org/ </author>
10 <author> Manoj Srivastava <email/srivasta@debian.org/
12 <chapt> About the checklist
14 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
15 of old packages. Note that this list is not "official"; it simply
16 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
17 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
18 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
19 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
20 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version 3.0.0
21 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
22 issue: [3.4] means section 3.4. The section numbering changed when
23 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
24 used below refer to the current version.
26 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
27 package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"
28 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
29 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
30 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
31 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,
32 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
33 picking your way through this list.
37 <sect id="3.9.4.0"> Version 3.9.4.0
44 <item>All copyright files must be encoded in UTF-8.
48 <sect id="3.9.3.0"> Version 3.9.3.0
51 Released February, 2012.
55 <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
56 and <em>metapackages</em> added.
59 <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
60 now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
61 architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
64 <item>If a dependency is restricted to particular architectures, the
65 list of architectures must be non-empty.
68 <item><file>/run</file> is allowed as an exception to the FHS and
69 replaces <file>/var/run</file>. <file>/run/lock</file>
70 replaces <file>/var/lock</file>. The FHS requirements for the older
71 directories apply to these directories as well. Backward compatibility
72 links will be maintained and packages need not switch to
73 referencing <file>/run</file> directly yet. Files in <file>/run</file>
74 should be stored in a temporary file system.
77 <item>New section spelling out the requirements for packages that use
78 files in <file>/run</file>, <file>/var/run</file>,
79 or <file>/var/lock</file>. This generalizes information previously only
83 <item>Cron job file names must not contain <tt>.</tt> or <tt>+</tt> or
84 they will be ignored by cron. They should replace those characters
85 with <tt>_</tt>. If a package provides multiple cron job files in the
86 same directory, they should each start with the package name (possibly
87 modified as above), <tt>-</tt>, and then some suitable suffix.
90 <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
93 <item>Packages that declare the same <tt>conffile</tt> may see left-over
94 configuration files from each other even if they conflict.
97 <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
98 of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
99 they have been removed.
102 <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
103 Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
104 note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
106 <tag>copyright-format</tag>
107 <item>Version 1.0 of the "Machine-readable <file>debian/copyright</file>
108 file" specification is included.
111 <item>This separate document has been retired and and its (short)
112 contents merged into Policy section 9.7. There are no changes to the
116 <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
117 trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
120 <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
121 <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
125 <sect id="3.9.2.0"> Version 3.9.2.0
128 Released April, 2011.
132 <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
133 used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
137 <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
138 and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
139 email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
140 address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
143 <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
144 multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
145 may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
149 <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
150 containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
151 lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
152 composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
156 <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
159 <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
160 possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
161 this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
162 complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
166 <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
167 of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
168 dependencies are now a should not.
171 <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
172 scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
173 case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
174 improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
175 actions if their dependencies are not available.
178 <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
179 and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
182 <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
183 <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
184 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
185 <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
186 on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
189 <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
190 install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
191 POSIX-required interface.
195 <sect id="3.9.1.0"> Version 3.9.1.0
202 <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
203 year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
207 <item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
208 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
209 must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
212 <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
213 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
214 and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
217 <item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
218 package relationships provided that the binary package is not
219 architecture-independent.
222 <item><tt>Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt> should only be used when
223 there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
224 because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
227 <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
228 library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
229 change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
230 bundling shared libraries together in one package.
233 <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
236 <tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
237 <item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
238 file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
241 <item>The SONAME of a library may instead be of the
242 form <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>.
245 <item>Libtool <file>.la</file> files should not be installed for public
246 libraries. If they're required (for <tt>libltdl</tt>, for instance),
247 the <tt>dependency_libs</tt> setting should be emptied. Library
248 packages historically including <file>.la</file> files must continue to
249 include them (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt> emptied) until all libraries
250 that depend on that library have removed or emptied
251 their <file>.la</file> files.
254 <item>Libraries no longer need to be built with <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>,
255 which was an obsolete LinuxThreads requirement. Instead, say explicitly
256 that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
257 thread-safe if the library supports this.
260 <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
261 supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
262 that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
263 listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
264 with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
267 <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
268 logrotate rules is now recommended.
271 <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
272 and either mode 644 or mode 755.
274 <tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
275 <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
276 <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
277 <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
278 for the corresponding manual page.
281 <item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
282 of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
283 executables in those subdirectories.
286 <item>The GPL version 1 is now included in common-licenses and should be
287 referenced from there instead of included in the <file>copyright</file>
292 <sect id="3.9.0.0"> Version 3.9.0.0
298 <tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>
299 <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the
300 Date control field is now precisely specified.
303 <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
304 particular field name.
306 <tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
307 <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
308 in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
309 documented and recommended.
311 <tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
312 <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
313 1.8. The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source
314 package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it
315 is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field
316 for <file>.changes</file> files.
319 <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather
323 <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must
326 <tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>
327 <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific
328 architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>
329 Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build
333 <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a
334 controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive
335 behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there
336 is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority
337 question, but should avoid this if possible.
339 <tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>
340 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving
341 files between packages.
344 <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead
345 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between
346 packages. New documentation of when each should be used.
349 <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider
350 of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.
353 <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be
354 in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>
355 package is installed. This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split
356 as long as it depends on the additional packages.
359 <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.
361 <tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>
362 <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the
363 normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.
366 <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that
367 should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.
368 It should instead be included directly
369 in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in
370 common-licenses for the time being.
373 <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
374 some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
375 template instead of a string to allow translation.
378 <item><package>perl-base</package> now
379 provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a
380 package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend
381 on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back
382 on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.
385 <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use
386 <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package
387 staging area. <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.
391 <sect id="3.8.4.0"> Version 3.8.4.0
398 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
399 Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and
400 <file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
403 <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
404 them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
407 <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
408 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
412 <sect id="3.8.3.0"> Version 3.8.3.0
418 <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
419 recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
422 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
423 combination with other architectures. Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/
424 may be used in different versions of the field.
427 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
428 to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.
431 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
434 <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
435 in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
436 should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
437 using them should be built with RPATH.
440 <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
441 Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
442 installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
443 and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
446 <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
447 representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
450 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
451 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
452 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
456 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
457 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
458 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
459 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
460 support partial upgrades.
463 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
464 Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl >= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.
468 <sect id="3.8.2.0"> Version 3.8.2.0
475 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
476 <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
477 name="this debian-devel-announce message">
478 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
482 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
483 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
484 back on other methods.
487 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
491 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
492 FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
495 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
496 <file>/var/mail</file>.
499 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
503 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
504 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
508 <sect id="3.8.1.0"> Version 3.8.1.0
515 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
516 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
517 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
520 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
523 <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
527 <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
528 supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
531 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
532 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
535 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
538 <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
539 with no preceding whitespace.
542 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
543 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless
544 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
545 behavior of the init system in Debian.
548 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
549 start the daemon again if it's already running.
552 <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as
553 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
554 subdirectories dynamically.
557 <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
558 variable arguments and supports assignment.
561 <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
562 mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
566 <sect id="3.8.0.0"> Version 3.8.0.0
573 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
574 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
575 system is now defined by priority.
577 <item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
578 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
580 <tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>
581 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
582 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
583 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
584 unknown flags be ignored.
586 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
587 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
588 processes if the package supports it
590 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
591 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
594 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
595 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
596 <file>debian/README.source</file> file explaining how to generate
597 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
598 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
599 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
602 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
604 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
607 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
608 <tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>
609 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
610 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
611 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
612 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
614 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
615 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
616 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
619 <item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be
620 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
623 <item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not
624 conflict with <tt> xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is
627 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
628 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
629 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
630 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
631 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
632 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
635 <item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
636 referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.
638 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
639 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
642 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
645 <sect id="3.7.3.0"> Version 3.7.3.0
652 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
653 anything, even the end of a part.
655 <item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic
656 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
659 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
660 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
662 <tag>menu policy</tag>
663 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
664 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
665 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
666 sections would be more appropriate.
668 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
671 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
672 critical, or emergency.
674 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
675 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
676 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
679 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
680 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
681 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
683 <item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
684 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
687 <sect id="3.7.2.2"> Version 3.7.2.2
693 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
694 should to a must)</item>
697 <sect id="3.7.2.0"> Version 3.7.2.0
703 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>
706 <sect id="3.7.1.0"> Version 3.7.1.0
713 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
714 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
715 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
716 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
717 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
718 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
721 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
722 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if
723 they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)</tt>
726 <sect id="3.7.0.0"> Version 3.7.0.0
733 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
734 them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories. This location change
735 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
737 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
738 cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.
740 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
741 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
742 though new top level directories <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,
743 etc. may be of interest.
744 <tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>
745 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
746 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
747 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
748 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
749 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
750 as well, to prepare for future changes.
752 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
753 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
754 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
757 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
758 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
760 <tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>
761 <item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have
762 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
763 live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>
767 <sect id="3.6.2.0"> Version 3.6.2.0
774 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
777 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
778 <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared
779 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
782 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
783 allow packages to share image files with the web server
787 <sect id="3.6.1.0"> Version 3.6.1.0
794 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
795 user prompts are now deprecated.
798 <sect id="3.6.0.0"> Version 3.6.0
805 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
806 the minor version number:
808 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
809 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
810 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
811 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
812 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
813 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
814 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
815 deb-building tool-chain.
817 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
818 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
819 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
820 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
822 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
823 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
824 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
825 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
826 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
827 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
828 sections about changelog files.
829 <tag>menu policy</tag>
830 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
833 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
835 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
836 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
838 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
842 <sect id="3.5.10.0"> Version 3.5.10
849 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
850 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
853 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
854 Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
857 <sect id="3.5.9.0"> Version 3.5.9.0
864 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
865 full details of the long description format.
867 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
868 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
869 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
871 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
872 the init script should start the service.
874 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
875 example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>
876 (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).
879 <sect id="3.5.8.0"> Version 3.5.8.0
886 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
887 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
888 documented in the changelog file.
890 <item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
891 and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
893 <tag>menu policy</tag>
894 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
895 <tag>debconf policy</tag>
896 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
898 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
899 manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
903 <sect id="3.5.7.0"> Version 3.5.7.0
910 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
911 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
913 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
916 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
917 special Tasks: field in the control file.
919 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
920 they add themselves as an alternative for
921 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>
923 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
924 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
925 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
926 environment variable.
928 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
929 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
930 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
931 review the new rules.
933 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
934 scripts. Long rationale.
938 Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
939 rules, please see below
942 <sect id="3.5.6.0"> Version 3.5.6.0
949 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
952 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,
953 and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously
955 <item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus
956 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
958 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
959 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
960 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
961 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
963 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
964 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
967 <sect id="3.5.5.0"> Version 3.5.5.0
974 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
975 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
976 symlinks or .so pages to do this
979 <item><em> Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
980 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
981 by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story</em>
984 <item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
985 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
988 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
989 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
992 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
995 <tag>X Windows related things:</tag>
998 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
1002 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>
1004 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
1005 fonts for the X Window System
1008 <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>
1011 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
1012 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
1015 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
1016 OSF/Motif-linked ones
1021 <sect id="3.5.4.0"> Version 3.5.4.0
1022 <p> Released Apr 2001.
1026 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
1027 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
1028 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
1031 <tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>
1032 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
1033 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
1038 <sect id="3.5.3.0"> Version 3.5.3.0
1039 <p> Released Apr 2001
1043 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
1044 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
1047 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
1048 in <file>/usr/share/<package></file> or
1049 <file>/usr/lib/<package></file>, with symbolic links from
1050 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> as needed
1054 <sect id="3.5.2.0"> Version 3.5.2.0
1056 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1060 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
1061 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to
1062 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>
1066 <sect id="3.5.1.0"> Version 3.5.1.0
1068 <p> Released Feb 2001.
1072 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
1073 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
1077 <sect id="3.5.0.0"> Version 3.5.0.0
1079 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1083 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
1084 dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
1088 <sect id="3.2.1.1"> Version 3.2.1.1
1090 <p> Released Jan 2001.
1094 <item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain
1095 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
1096 <file>/etc/default/</file>
1099 <item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any
1100 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
1101 <file>/usr/share/<package>/</file>, and symbolic links
1102 created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/</file>
1105 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
1110 <sect id="3.2.1.0"> Version 3.2.1.0
1112 <p> Released Aug 00.
1116 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
1117 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
1118 and the other without
1122 <sect id="3.2.0.0"> Version 3.2.0.0
1124 <p> Released Aug 00.
1128 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
1129 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
1130 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
1133 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
1134 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
1135 should always be generated for the upstream changes
1138 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
1139 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
1142 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
1146 <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>
1148 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>
1150 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
1151 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority
1152 calculation guidelines)
1155 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>
1157 <item>X application defaults </item>
1161 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
1165 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>
1167 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
1168 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
1173 <sect id="3.1.1.0"> Version 3.1.1.0
1175 <p> Released Nov 1999.
1179 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
1180 etc. Should not affect many packages
1184 <sect id="3.1.0.0"> Version 3.1.0.0
1186 <p> Released Oct 1999.
1190 <item><file>/usr/doc/<package></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
1191 <file>/usr/share/doc/<package></file>, to be maintained by postinst
1195 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>
1197 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of
1198 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
1199 but should use update-rc.d instead)
1202 <item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the
1203 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
1204 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
1205 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
1209 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
1210 <file>/usr/lib/<package>/examples</file>
1211 with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/*</file>
1212 or from <file>/usr/share/doc/<package>/examples</file> itself
1215 <item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to
1216 <file>/var/lib</file>
1218 <tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>
1219 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>
1221 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
1224 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
1225 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
1229 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
1230 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
1231 using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)
1234 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
1239 <sect id="3.0.1.0"> Version 3.0.1.0
1241 <p> Released Jul 1999.
1245 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
1246 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
1247 files must go in the run-time library package
1251 <sect id="3.0.0.0"> Version 3.0.0.0
1253 <p> Released Jun 1999.
1257 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
1258 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
1262 <item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
1263 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
1266 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
1267 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the
1268 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
1269 other major licenses
1272 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
1273 include the .la files in the -dev packages
1276 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
1279 <item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
1282 <tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>
1283 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
1284 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
1287 <item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,
1288 <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be
1289 installed setgid utmp
1293 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
1296 <sect id="2.5.0.0"> Version 2.5.0.0
1298 <p> Released Oct 1998.
1302 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
1304 <item>Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
1305 that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
1306 Section 5 and Section 6.
1308 <item>What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
1309 new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
1310 "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
1311 and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
1312 Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
1316 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
1317 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
1318 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
1319 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>
1321 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
1322 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
1324 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
1325 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
1327 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
1328 files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>
1330 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
1335 <sect id="2.4.1.0"> Version 2.4.1.0
1337 <p> Released Apr 1998.
1339 <sect1> Policy Manual:
1341 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>
1342 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
1343 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1344 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
1347 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>
1348 <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>
1349 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
1353 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1355 <item>Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
1356 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1357 installs shared libraries
1358 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
1362 <sect id="2.4.0.0"> Version 2.4.0.0
1364 <p> Released Jan 1998
1367 <tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>
1369 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1370 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>
1372 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1373 (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1377 <tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>
1378 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1379 file extension as the referenced file
1382 <tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>
1383 <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1384 <file>/dev/cu*</file>
1387 <tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:
1389 <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following
1390 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1391 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1395 <tag>Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
1396 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1397 be installed into <file>/etc/cron.d</file>
1400 <tag>Updated section 3.7 Menus:
1401 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1402 (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
1403 has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1407 <tag>New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1408 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1412 <tag>New section 3.9 Environment variables:
1413 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1414 reasonable default configuration
1417 <tag>New section 4.6 News system configuration:
1418 <item><file>/etc/news/organization</file> and <file>/etc/news/server</file>
1419 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1422 <tag>Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1424 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1425 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1427 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1428 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1432 <tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:
1433 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in <file>/usr/games</file>,
1438 <sect id="2.3.0.0"> Version 2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
1440 <p> Released Sep 1997.
1443 <item>new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1444 <file>/etc/services</file>, <file>/etc/protocols</file>,
1445 <file>/etc/rpc</file>, and <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>
1448 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1449 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1452 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile</item>
1455 <sect id="2.2.0.0"> Version 2.2.0.0
1457 <p> Released July 1997.
1460 <item>added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1463 where <arch> is one of the following:
1464 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1467 <item>detailed rules for <file>/usr/local</file></item>
1469 <item>user ID's</item>
1471 <item>editor/pager policy</item>
1473 <item>cron jobs</item>
1475 <item>device files</item>
1477 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable</item>
1479 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles</item>
1482 <sect id="2.1.3.0"> Version 2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
1484 <p> Released Mar 1997.
1487 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1490 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1492 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1494 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'</item>
1496 <item>Libraries should be stripped with <prgn>strip --strip-unneeded</prgn>
1500 <sect id="2.1.2.0"> Version 2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
1502 <p> Released Nov 1996.
1505 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1508 <sect id="2.1.1.0"> Version 2.1.1.0
1510 <p> Released Sep 1996.
1513 <item>No hard links in source packages</item>
1515 <item>Do not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> or <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1516 without consultation </item>
1518 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped </item>
1521 <sect id="2.1.0.0"> Version 2.1.0.0
1523 <p> Released Aug 1996.
1526 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too </item>