- It is often a good idea to put text information files
- (<file>README</file>s, changelogs, and so forth) that come with
- the source package in <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>
- in the binary package. However, you don't need to install
- the instructions for building and installing the package, of
- course!</p>
+ If a package comes with large amounts of documentation that many
+ users of the package will not require, you should create a
+ separate binary package to contain it so that it does not take
+ up disk space on the machines of users who do not need or want
+ it installed. As a special case of this rule, shared library
+ documentation of any appreciable size should always be packaged
+ with the library development package (<ref id="sharedlibs-dev">)
+ or in a separate documentation package, since shared libraries
+ are frequently installed as dependencies of other packages by
+ users who have little interest in documentation of the library
+ itself. The documentation package for the
+ package <var>package</var> is conventionally
+ named <var>package</var>-doc
+ (or <var>package</var>-doc-<var>language-code</var> if there are
+ separate documentation packages for multiple languages).
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ Additional documentation included in the package should be
+ installed under <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
+ If the documentation is packaged separately,
+ as <var>package</var>-doc for example, it may be installed under
+ either that path or into the documentation directory for the
+ separate documentation package
+ (<file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>-doc</file> in this
+ example). However, installing the documentation into the
+ documentation directory of the main package is preferred since
+ it is independent of the packaging method and will be easier for
+ users to find.
+ </p>
+
+ <p>
+ Any separate package providing documentation must still install
+ standard documentation files in its
+ own <file>/usr/share/doc</file> directory as specified in the
+ rest of this policy. See, for example, <ref id="copyrightfile">
+ and <ref id="changelogs">.
+ </p>