<chapt> The checklist
+<sect> Version 3.9.3.0
+<p>
+
+Unreleased.
+
+</p><p><taglist>
+<tag>2.4</tag>
+ <item>New archive sections <em>education</em>, <em>introspection</em>,
+ and <em>metapackages</em> added.
+ </item>
+<tag>5.6.8</tag>
+ <item>The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <file>*.dsc</file> files may
+ now contain the value <tt>any all</tt> for source packages building both
+ architecture-independent and architecture-dependent packages.
+ </item>
+<tag>9.10</tag>
+ <item>Packages using doc-base do not need to call install-docs anymore.
+ </item>
+<tag>11.8</tag>
+ <item>The Policy rules around Motif libraries were just a special case
+ of normal rules for non-free dependencies and were largely obsolete, so
+ they have been removed.
+ </item>
+<tag>12.5</tag>
+ <item><file>debian/copyright</file> is no longer required to list the
+ Debian maintainers involved in the creation of the package (although
+ note that the requirement to list copyright information is unchanged).
+ </item>
+<tag>perl</tag>
+ <item>Packages may declare an interest in the <var>perl-major-upgrade</var>
+ trigger to be notified of major upgrades of perl.
+ </item>
+<tag>virtual</tag>
+ <item><tt>ttf-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt> is renamed to
+ <tt>fonts-japanese-{mincho, gothic}</tt>.
+ </item>
+</taglist></p>
+
+<sect> Version 3.9.2.0
+<p>
+
+Released April, 2011.
+
+</p><p><taglist>
+<tag>*</tag>
+ <item>Multiple clarifications throughout Policy where "installed" was
+ used and the more precise terms "unpacked" or "configured" were
+ intended.
+ </item>
+<tag>3.3</tag>
+ <item>The maintainer address must accept mail from Debian role accounts
+ and the BTS. At least one human must be listed with their personal
+ email address in <tt>Uploaders</tt> if the maintainer is a shared email
+ address. The duties of a maintainer are also clearer.
+ </item>
+<tag>5</tag>
+ <item>All control fields are now classified as simple, folded, or
+ multiline, which governs whether their values must be a single line or
+ may be continued across multiple lines and whether line breaks are
+ significant.
+ </item>
+<tag>5.1</tag>
+ <item>Parsers are allowed to accept paragraph separation lines
+ containing whitespace, but control files should use completely empty
+ lines. Ordering of paragraphs is significant. Field names must be
+ composed of printable ASCII characters except colon and must not begin
+ with #.
+ </item>
+<tag>5.6.25</tag>
+ <item>The <tt>DM-Upload-Allowed</tt> field is now documented.
+ </item>
+<tag>6.5</tag>
+ <item>The system state maintainer scripts can rely upon during each
+ possible invocation is now documented. In several less-common cases,
+ this is stricter than Policy had previously documented. Packages with
+ complex maintainer scripts should be reviewed in light of this new
+ documentation.
+ </item>
+<tag>7.2</tag>
+ <item>The impact on system state when maintainer scripts that are part
+ of a circular dependency are run is now documented. Circular
+ dependencies are now a should not.
+ </item>
+<tag>7.2</tag>
+ <item>The system state when <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
+ scripts are run is now documented, and the documentation of the special
+ case of dependency state for <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts has been
+ improved. <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts are required to gracefully skip
+ actions if their dependencies are not available.
+ </item>
+<tag>9.1.1</tag>
+ <item>GNU/Hurd systems are allowed <file>/hurd</file>
+ and <file>/servers</file> directories in the root filesystem.
+ </item>
+<tag>9.1.1</tag>
+ <item>Packages installing to architecture-specific subdirectories of
+ <file>/usr/lib</file> must use the value returned by
+ <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH</prgn>, not by
+ <prgn>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</prgn>; this is a path change
+ on i386 architectures and a no-op for other architectures.
+ </item>
+<tag>virtual</tag>
+ <item><tt>mailx</tt> is now a virtual package provided by packages that
+ install <prgn>/usr/bin/mailx</prgn> and implement at least the
+ POSIX-required interface.
+ </item>
+</taglist></p>
+
<sect> Version 3.9.1.0
<p>
-Not yet released.
+Released July, 2010.
</p><p><taglist>
+<tag>3.2.1</tag>
+ <item>Date-based version components should be given as the four-digit
+ year, two-digit month, and then two-digit day, but may have embedded
+ punctuation.
+ </item>
<tag>3.9</tag>
<item>Maintainer scripts must pass <tt>--package</tt>
to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> when creating or removing diversions and
must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
</item>
+<tag>4.10</tag>
+ <item>Only <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> supports variable substitution.
+ <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> (for <file>*.changes</file>)
+ and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> (for <file>*.dsc</file>) do not.
+ </item>
<tag>7.1</tag>
<item>Architecture restrictions and wildcards are also allowed in binary
package relationships provided that the binary package is not
there are file conflicts or one package breaks the other, not just
because two packages provide similar functionality but don't interfere.
</item>
+<tag>8.1</tag>
+ <item>The SONAME of a library should change whenever the ABI of the
+ library changes in a way that isn't backward-compatible. It should not
+ change if the library ABI changes are backward-compatible. Discourage
+ bundling shared libraries together in one package.
+ </item>
+<tag>8.4</tag>
+ <item>Ada Library Information (<file>*.ali</file>) files must be
+ installed read-only.
+ </item>
<tag>8.6.1, 8.6.2, 8.6.5</tag>
<item>Packages should normally not include a <file>shlibs.local</file>
file since we now have complete <file>shlibs</file> coverage.
that libraries should be built with threading support and to be
thread-safe if the library supports this.
</item>
+<tag>10.4</tag>
+ <item><file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that <prgn>kill</prgn>
+ supports an argument of <tt>-<var>signal</var></tt>,
+ that <prgn>kill</prgn> and <prgn>trap</prgn> support the numeric signals
+ listed in the XSI extension, and that signal 13 (SIGPIPE) can be trapped
+ with <prgn>trap</prgn>.
+ </item>
+<tag>10.8</tag>
+ <item>Use of <file>/etc/logrotate.d/<var>package</var></file> for
+ logrotate rules is now recommended.
+ </item>
+<tag>10.9</tag>
+ <item>Control information files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>
+ and either mode 644 or mode 755.
+ </item>
+<tag>11.4, 11.8.3, 11.8.4</tag>
+ <item>Packages providing alternatives for <prgn>editor</prgn>,
+ <prgn>pager</prgn>, <prgn>x-terminal-emulator</prgn>, or
+ <prgn>x-window-manager</prgn> should also provide a slave alternative
+ for the corresponding manual page.
+ </item>
<tag>11.5</tag>
<item>Cgi-bin executable files may be installed in subdirectories
of <file>/usr/lib/cgi-bin</file> and web servers should serve out
particular field name.
</item>
<tag>5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24</tag>
- <item>Document and recommend the <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
- and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields in <file>*.dsc</file>
- and <file>*.changes</file> files.
+ <item>The <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> fields
+ in <file>*.dsc</file> and <file>*.changes</file> files are now
+ documented and recommended.
</item>
<tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>
<item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now
common-licenses for the time being.
</item>
<tag>debconf</tag>
- <item>Add <tt>SETTITLE</tt> (which has been supported for some time).
- Like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a template instead of a string to allow
- translation.
+ <item><tt>SETTITLE</tt> is now documented (it has been supported for
+ some time). <tt>SETTITLE</tt> is like <tt>TITLE</tt> but takes a
+ template instead of a string to allow translation.
</item>
<tag>perl</tag>
<item><package>perl-base</package> now
<file>/usr/lib/triplet</file> directories.
</item>
<tag>10.6</tag>
- <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
- should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
+ <item>Packages may not contain named pipes and should instead create
+ them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
</item>
<tag>9.1.1</tag>
<item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly
</p><p><taglist>
<tag>4.9</tag>
- <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
- recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
+ <item>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables are now documented and
+ recommended over GNU-style variables for that information.
</item>
<tag>5.6.8</tag>
<item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in
<item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
</item>
<tag>10.2</tag>
- <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
- install libraries in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/.
- Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
- or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
+ <item>Shared library packages are no longer allowed to install libraries
+ in a non-standard location and modify <file/ld.so.conf/. Packages
+ should either be installed in a standard library directory or packages
+ using them should be built with RPATH.
</item>
<tag>11.8.7</tag>
- <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
- remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
- into <file>/usr/include/X11</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
+ <item>Installation directories for X programs have been clarified.
+ Packages are no longer required to pre-depend on x11-common before
+ installing into <file>/usr/include/X11</file>
+ and <file>/usr/lib/X11</file>.
</item>
<tag>12.1</tag>
- <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
- page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
+ <item>Manual pages are no longer required to contain only characters
+ representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
</item>
<tag>12.1</tag>
<item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
<item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
</item>
<tag>4.4</tag>
- <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
- to a must.
+ <item>Some format requirements for changelog files are now "must"
+ instead of "should."
</item>
<tag>4.4.1</tag>
- <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
- changelog format for the Debian Archive.
+ <item>Alternative changelog formats have been removed. Debian only
+ supports one changelog format for the Debian Archive.
</item>
<tag>4.9.1</tag>
<item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
<item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
</item>
<tag>5.2</tag>
- <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
- preceding whitespace.
+ <item><file>debian/control</file> allows comment lines starting with #
+ with no preceding whitespace.
</item>
<tag>9.3</tag>
<item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
projects / debian / debian-policy.git / blobdiff