Perl policy: Document major version upgrade trigger

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

diff --git a/perl-policy.sgml b/perl-policy.sgml
index b9f327739b963ae949265ce871f13870ad033368..70c5bfcc7ab149b9a86fe2bbd4b03ad8aeea842c 100644 (file)
--- a/perl-policy.sgml
+++ b/perl-policy.sgml
@@ -461,6 +461,26 @@ perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ldopts
          package must depend upon it explicitly.
        </p>
       </sect>
+
+      <sect id="perl_upgrades">
+        <heading>Perl Package Upgrades</heading>
+        <p>
+          Starting from <package>perl</package> 5.12.3-2, a dpkg trigger
+          named <var>perl-major-upgrade</var> will be triggered by the
+          postinst of the <package>perl</package> package during major
+          upgrades. Some examples of things which constitute a major upgrade
+          are an upgrade which would change the value of versioned
+          directories in <tt>@INC</tt>, or one which changes <tt>abiname</tt>.
+          Any package may declare an interest in the trigger, especially
+          packages including long-running daemons which would stop working
+          until restart.
+        </p>
+        <p>
+          It is suggested that such packages include an appropriate section
+          in their postinst to handle the trigger by restarting relevant
+          daemons or notifying users of further action.
+        </p>
+      </sect>
     </chapt>
 
     <appendix id="perl6">