Perl Policy: Change perlapi provides to use an ABI version

[debian/debian-policy.git] / perl-policy.sgml

diff --git a/perl-policy.sgml b/perl-policy.sgml
index ce9c4ee8e83c756dc87511a98847311d7b4e54ea..58c33328fb8eec1aea378294862c3df1cc79cc5c 100644 (file)
--- a/perl-policy.sgml
+++ b/perl-policy.sgml
@@ -47,14 +47,26 @@
        </p>
        <p>
          You can also obtain it by writing to the
-         Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
-         Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+         Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
+         Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. 
        </p>
       </copyright>
     </titlepag>
 
     <toc detail="sect">
 
+    <chapt>
+      <heading>About this document</heading>
+      <p>
+       This document is distributed as the <tt>perl-policy</tt> files
+       in the Debian package
+        <package><url name="debian-policy" id="http://packages.debian.org/debian-policy"></package>.
+       It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
+       <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/perl-policy/"
+               id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/perl-policy/"></tt>.
+      </p>
+    </chapt>
+
     <chapt id="perl">
       <heading>Perl Packaging</heading>
       <sect id="versions">
@@ -77,8 +89,11 @@
        </p>
        <p>
          The <package>perl-base</package> package must provide
-         <package>perlapi-<var>version</var></package> for all released
-         versions it is compatible with.
+         <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> for all released
+         package versions it is compatible with. The choice of
+         <var>abiname</var> is arbitrary, but if it differs from
+         <tt>$Config{version}</tt>, it must be specified in
+         <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt>.
        </p>
       </sect>
 
@@ -91,18 +106,18 @@
          the binary and a basic set of modules.
        </p>
        <p>
-         As Perl is currently used by such things as
-         <file>update-alternatives</file> and some package maintainer
-         scripts, it must be priority <em>required</em> and marked as
-         <em>essential</em>.
+         As Perl has been part of the essential set for some time and is
+         used without dependencies by such things as package maintainer
+         scripts, <package>perl-base</package> must be
+         priority <em>required</em> and marked as <em>essential</em>.
        </p>
        <p>
          Note that the <package>perl-base</package> package is intended
          only to provide for exceptional circumstances and the contents
-         may change.  In general only packages which form part of the
-         base system should declare a dependency on
-         <package>perl-base</package> rather than
-         <package>perl</package>.
+         may change.  In general, only packages which form part of the
+         base system should use only the facilities
+         of <package>perl-base</package> rather than declaring a
+         dependency on <package>perl</package>.
        </p>
       </sect>
 
@@ -307,10 +322,6 @@ $(MAKE) install PREFIX=$(CURDIR)/debian/&lt;tmp&gt;/usr
            (nominally just tmp)</p>
          </footnote>
        </p>
-       <p>
-         A <tt>Build-Depends</tt> on <tt>perl (>= 5.6.0-16)</tt> is
-         required.
-       </p>
       </sect>
 
       <sect id="module_deps">
@@ -330,13 +341,6 @@ $(MAKE) install PREFIX=$(CURDIR)/debian/&lt;tmp&gt;/usr
            the minimum required version, or more simply the current
            version.
          </p>
-         <p>
-           In the absence of an explicit requirement,
-           architecture-independent modules must depend on a minimum
-           <package>perl</package> or <package>perl-base</package>
-           version of <tt>5.6.0-16</tt> due to the changes in
-           <tt>@INC</tt> introduced by that version.
-         </p>
        </sect1>
 
        <sect1 id="binary_modules">
@@ -347,8 +351,9 @@ $(MAKE) install PREFIX=$(CURDIR)/debian/&lt;tmp&gt;/usr
            a minimum version of the <package>perl</package> package
            used to build the module, and must additionally depend on
            the expansion of
-           <package>perlapi-$Config{version}</package> using
-           the <tt>Config</tt> module.
+           <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package> using
+           the <tt>Config</tt> module. If <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt>
+           is empty or not set, <tt>$Config{version}</tt> must be used.
          </p>
        </sect1>
 
@@ -358,8 +363,13 @@ $(MAKE) install PREFIX=$(CURDIR)/debian/&lt;tmp&gt;/usr
            Rather than hard-coding the dependencies into the control
            file, using a substitution such as <tt>${perl:Depends}</tt>
            is suggested.  This allows the dependencies to be determined
-           as build time and written to the <file>substvars</file> file
-           in the form <tt>perl:Depends=<var>deps</var></tt>.
+           at build time and written to the <file>substvars</file> file
+           in the form
+           <tt>perl:Depends=<var>deps</var></tt>.<footnote>
+             <p>Please note that dependencies caused by versioned
+             uses and on separately packaged modules are not included
+             in this variable and must be explicitly included.</p>
+           </footnote>
          </p>
          <p>
            Packages built with <prgn>debhelper</prgn> may use
@@ -471,3 +481,6 @@ perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ldopts
     </appendix>
   </book>
 </debiandoc>
+<!-- Local variables: -->
+<!-- indent-tabs-mode: t -->
+<!-- End: -->