============================================
Author: Bill Allombert, Josip Rodin, Julian Gilbey, Russ Allbery, and Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>
-Date: 2009-09-13 01:40:59 CDT
+Date: 2009-10-13 11:05:42 CDT
About the checklist
--------
Released Aug, 2009.
-+ *4.9* : Add DEB_\*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_\*_ARCH_OS variables and
++ *4.9* : Add DEB\_*\_ARCH\_CPU and DEB\_*\_ARCH\_OS variables and
recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
-+ *5.6.8*: Source package Architecture fields may contain "all" in
- combination with other architectures. Clarify when "all" and "any"
++ *5.6.8*: Source package Architecture fields may contain /all/ in
+ combination with other architectures. Clarify when /all/ and /any/
may be used in different versions of the field.
-5.6.14: The Debian archive software does not support uploading
++ *5.6.14* : The Debian archive software does not support uploading
to multiple distributions with one \*.changes file.
-[5.6.19]: The Binary field may span multiple lines.
-[10.2]: Remove the permission for shared library packages to
++ *5.6.19* : The Binary field may span multiple lines.
++ *10.2* : Remove the permission for shared library packages to
install libraries in a non-standard location and modify ld.so.conf.
Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
-[11.8.7]: Clarify installation directories for X programs and
++ *11.8.7* : Clarify installation directories for X programs and
remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
into /usr/include/X11 and /usr/lib/X11.
-[12.1]: Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
++ *12.1* : Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
-[12.1]: Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
++ *12.1* : Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
original language.
-[12.2]: install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
++ *12.2* : install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
support partial upgrades.
-[perl]: The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
++ *perl* : The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
Depend and Build-Depend on perl >= 5.6.0-16 has been removed.
+3.8.2.0
+--------
+
+Released Jun 2009.
+
++ *2.4*: The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
+ [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html]
+ for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
+ packages.
++ *3.9.1*: All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
+ though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
+ back on other methods.
++ *5.6.1*: The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
+ spelled out.
++ *9.1*: Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
+ FHS permitting /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
++ *9.1.3*: Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
+ /var/mail.
++ *11.8.5*: Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
+ starting in lenny.
++ *12.5*: The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
+ common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
+
+3.8.1.0
+--------
+
+Released Mar 2009.
+
++ *3.8*: Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
+ such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
+ in essential forever unless significant work is done.
++ *4.4*: Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8.
++ *4.4*: Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
+ to a must.
++ *4.4.1*: Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
+ changelog format for the Debian Archive.
++ *4.9.1*: New nocheck option for DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
+ test suite provided by the package should not be run.
++ *5.1*: All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
++ *5.2*: debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
+ preceding whitespace.
++ *9.3*: Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
+ sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
+ the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
+ behavior of the init system in Debian.
++ *9.3.2*: The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
+ start the daemon again if it's already running.
++ *9.3.2*: /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
+ init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
+ dynamically.
++ *10.4*: /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
+ arguments and supports assignment.
++ *11.6*: User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
+ mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.
+
+3.8.0.0
+--------
+
+Released Jun 2008.
+
++ *2.4, 3.7*: The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
+ removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
+ system is now defined by priority.
++ *4.9*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
+ a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
+ else is necessary.
++ *4.9.1, 10.1*: Standardized the format of DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
+ characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
+ allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
+ unknown flags be ignored.
++ *4.9.1*: Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS tags,
+ indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
+ processes if the package supports it
++ *4.13*: Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
+ packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
+ used that way.
++ *4.14*: If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
+ building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
+ debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
+ source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
+ modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
+ new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
+ process.
++ *5.6.3*: The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
++ *5.6.12*: An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
+ a version number.
++ *5.6.23*: New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
++ *6.5, 6.6, 7*: The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
+ prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
+ named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
+ used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
++ *8.1, 8.2*: Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
+ separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
+ of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
+ common in Debian.
++ *9.5*: Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
+ configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
+ directory.
++ *11.8.6*: Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
+ xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete.
++ *12.1*: Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
+ legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
+ not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
+ indicating a significant difference in the language. All
+ characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
+ legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
+ UTF-8.
++ *12.5*: The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
+ referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
++ *12.5*: Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
+ that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
+ explain why.
++ *debconf*: Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
+
+3.7.3.0
+--------
+
+Released Dec 2007.
+
++ *5.6.12*: Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
+ anything, even the end of a part.
++ *10.4*: Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
+ and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
+ logical operators.
++ *8.5*: The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
+ of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
+ library.
++ *menu policy*: Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
+ menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
+ see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
+ sections would be more appropriate.
++ *5.6.1*: The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
+ in parentheses.
++ *5.6.17*: The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
+ critical, or emergency.
++ *8.6*: The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
+ type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
+ supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
+ Installer.
++ *3.9.1*: Packages following the Debian Configuration management
+ specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
+ a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
++ *12.5*: GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
+ be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
+
+3.7.2.2
+--------
+
+Released Oct 2006.
+
++ *6.1*: Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
+ should to a must)
+
+3.7.2.0
+--------
+
+Released Apr 2006.
+
++ *11.5*: Revert the cgi-lib change.
+
+3.7.1.0
+--------
+
+Released Apr 2006.
+
++ *10.2*: It is now possible to create shared libraries without
+ relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
+ provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
+ libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
+ Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
+ consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
+ of the process.
++ *11.8.7*: Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
+ /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
+ must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0)
+
+3.7.0.0
+--------
+
+Released Apr 2006.
+
++ *11.5*: Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
+ them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
+ perhaps should be documented in NEWS
++ *11.5*: Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
+ cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib.
++ *9.1.1*: The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
+ 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
+ though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
+ interest.
++ *5.1, 5.6.3*: All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
+ are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
+ over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
+ elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
+ the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
+ as well, to prepare for future changes.
++ *10.4*: When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
+ PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
+ denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
+
++ *9.3.3.2*: packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
+ so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
+ constraints.
++ *11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc*: We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have
+ migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
+ live in /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
+
+
+3.6.2.0
+--------
+
+Released 2005
+
++ Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
++ *8.1*: Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
+ /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
+ the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
++ *11.5*: It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
+ allow packages to share image files with the web server
-3.8.2.0 Jun 2009
-
- * The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
- [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html]
- for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
- packages. [2.4]
- * All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
- though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
- back on other methods. [3.9.1]
- * The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
- spelled out. [5.6.1]
- * Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
- FHS permitting /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. [9.1]
- * Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
- /var/mail. [9.1.3]
- * Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
- starting in lenny. [11.8.5]
- * The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in
- common-licenses and should be referenced from there. [12.5]
-
-3.8.1.0 Mar 2009
-
- * Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
- such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
- in essential forever unless significant work is done. [3.8]
- * Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-8. [4.4]
- * Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
- to a must. [4.4]
- * Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
- changelog format for the Debian Archive. [4.4.1]
- * New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
- test suite provided by the package should not be run. [4.9.1]
- * All control files must be encoded in UTF-8. [5.1]
- * debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
- preceding whitespace. [5.2]
- * Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
- sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by /bin/sh regardless of
- the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
- behavior of the init system in Debian. [9.3]
- * The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
- start the daemon again if it's already running. [9.3.2]
- * /var/run and /var/lock may be mounted as temporary filesystems, and
- init scripts must therefore create any necessary subdirectories
- dynamically. [9.3.2]
- * /bin/sh scripts may assume that local can take multiple variable
- arguments and supports assignment. [10.4]
- * User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than
- mode 660, owned by user, and group mail. [11.6]
-
-3.8.0.0 Jun 2008
-
- * The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
- removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
- system is now defined by priority. [2.4, 3.7]
- * If dpkg-source -x doesn't provide the source that will be compiled,
- a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
- else is necessary. [4.9]
- * Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
- characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
- allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
- unknown flags be ignored. [4.9.1, 10.1]
- * Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
- indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
- processes if the package supports it [4.9.1]
- * Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
- packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
- used that way. [4.13]
- * If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
- building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
- debian/README.source file explaining how to generate the patched
- source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
- modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
- new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
- process. [4.14]
- * The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped. [5.6.3]
- * An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in
- a version number. [5.6.12]
- * New Homepage field for upstream web sites. [5.6.23]
- * The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
- prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
- named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
- used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it. [6.5, 6.6, 7]
- * Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
- separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
- of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
- common in Debian. [8.1, 8.2]
- * Files in /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly} must be
- configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
- directory. [9.5]
- * Packages providing /etc/X11/Xresources files need not conflict with
- xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2), which is long-obsolete. [11.8.6]
- * Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
- legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-8. Country names should
- not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
- indicating a significant difference in the language. All
- characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
- legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
- UTF-8. [12.1]
- * The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
- referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
- * Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
- that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
- explain why. [12.5]
- * Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names. [debconf]
-
-3.7.3.0 Dec 2007
-
- * Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
- anything, even the end of a part. [5.6.12]
- * Scripts may assume that /bin/sh supports local (at a basic level)
- and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
- logical operators. [10.4]
- * The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
- of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
- library. [8.5]
- * Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
- menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
- see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
- sections would be more appropriate. [menu policy]
- * The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
- in parentheses. [5.6.1]
- * The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
- critical, or emergency. [5.6.17]
- * The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
- type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
- supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
- Installer. [8.6]
- * Packages following the Debian Configuration management
- specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
- a gettext-based system such as po-debconf. [3.9.1]
- * GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should
- be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright. [12.5]
-
-3.7.2.2 Oct 2006
-
- * Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
- should to a must) [6.1]
-
-3.7.2.0 Apr 2006
-
- * Revert the cgi-lib change. [11.5]
-
-3.7.1.0 Apr 2006
-
- * It is now possible to create shared libraries without
- relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
- provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
- libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
- Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
- consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
- of the process. [10.2]
- * Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
- /usr/include/X11/and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they
- must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [11.8.7]
-
-3.7.0.0 Apr 2006
-
- * Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
- them in /usr/lib/cgi-lib/ directories. This location change
- perhaps should be documented in NEWS [11.5]
- * Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
- cgi-lib to /usr/lib/cgi-lib. [11.5]
- * The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
- 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
- though new top level directories /media, /srv, etc may be of
- interest. [9.1.1]
- * All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
- are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
- over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
- elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
- the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
- as well, to prepare for future changes. [ 5.1, 5.6.3 ]
- * When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
- PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
- denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
- [ 10.4 ]
- * packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
- so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
- constraints. [ 9.3.3.2 ]
- * We no longer use /usr/X11R6, since we have migrated away to
- using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts live in
- /usr/share/fonts/X11/ now, and /usr/X11R6 is gone.
- [ 11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc]
-
-3.6.2.0 2005
-
- * Recommend doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
- * Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
- /usr/lib/ or /usr/share, and preferably the shared lib is named
- the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions). [8.1]
- * It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
- allow packages to share image files with the web server [11.5]
-
-3.6.1.0 Aug 2003
-
- + Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
- user prompts are now deprecated. [3.10.1]
-
-3.6.0 Jul 2003
-
- - Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
- the minor version number:
- + Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
- sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
- In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
- fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
- and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
- is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
- optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
- deb-building tool-chain.
- + Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
- chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
- Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
- properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
- + Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
- with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
- everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
- Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
- talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
- and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
- sections about changelog files.
- - Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu sub-policy
- [menu policy]
- - Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded. [C.2.2]
- - shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
- use symbols from in the same way that binaries are. [10.2]
- - build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
- target. [7.6]
-
-3.5.10 May 2003
-
- - packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
- ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
- like xterm does. [11.8.3]
- - Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
- Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives [11.8.4]
-
-3.5.9.0 Mar 2003
-
- - The section describing the Description: package field once again has
- full details of the long description format. [3.4.2]
- - Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
- build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
- and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional). [4.2]
- - When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
- the init script should start the service. [9.3.2]
- - If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
- example files can be installed into <tt>/usr/share/doc/package</tt>
- (rather than <tt>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</tt>). [12.6]
-
-3.5.8.0 Nov 2002
-
- - It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
- sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
- documented in the changelog file. [12.7]
- - <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
- <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
- <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> must also be satisfied when the
- clean target is called. [7.6]
- - A new Apps/Science menu section is available [menu policy]
- - debconf specification cleared up, various changes. [debconf
- policy]
- - It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
- manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
- are still a bug. [12.1]
-
-3.5.7.0 Aug 2002
-
- - Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
- postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough. [10.6]
- - cryptographic software may now be included in the main
- archive. [2.2.4]
- - task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
- special Tasks: field in the control file. [3.9]
- - window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
- they add themselves as an alternative for
- /usr/bin/x-window-manager [11.8.4]
- - The default compilation options have now changed, one should
- provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
- back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
- environment variable. [10.1]
- - Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
- the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
- `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
- review the new rules. [7.6, 4.8]
- - Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
- scripts. Long rationale. [1]
- - [Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding
- build rules, please see below]
-
-3.5.6.0 Jul 2001
-
- - Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
- standard packages [2.5]
- - Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
- not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously [11.5]
- - Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
- a ``serious'' policy violation. [12.3]
- - For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
- /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
- the [http://localhost/doc/] directory, then it is preferred that one
- ask permission to expose that information during the install. [11.5]
- - There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
- there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic. [2]
-
-3.5.5.0 May 2001
-
- - Manpages should not rely on header information to have
- alternative manpage names available; it should only use
- symlinks or .so pages to do this [12.1]
- - [Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
- examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
- by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story]
- - Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
- dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
- - Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
- packages just to change the Standards-Version!
- - Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
- libraries [10.2]
- - X Windows related things:
- * Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
- packages [11.8.1]
- * Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved [11.8.3]
- * X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
- fonts for the X Window System [11.8.5]
- * Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/ [11.8.6]
- * X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
- locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this [11.8.7]
- * OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
- OSF/Motif-linked ones [11.8.8]
-
-3.5.4.0 Apr 2001
-
- - The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
- /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
- access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
- details in [11.6]
- - The perl policy is now part of Debian policy proper. Perl
- programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy
- [11.9; perl-policy]
-
-3.5.3.0 Apr 2001
-
- - Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
- ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages [7.1]
- - Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
- in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
- symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
- needed [10.7.3]
-
-3.5.2.0 Feb 2001
-
- - X app-defaults directory has moved from
- /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults [11.8.6]
-
-3.5.1.0 Feb 2001
-
- - dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
- run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables [8.1]
-
-3.5.0.0 Jan 2001
-
- - Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
- dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2) [11.8.5]
-
-3.2.1.1 Jan 2001
-
- - Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
- modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
- /etc/default/; see [9.3.2] for details
- - Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
- program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
- /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
- in /usr/share/doc/<package>/ [12.3]
- - Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
- policy document
-
-3.2.1.0 Aug 00
-
- - A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
- binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
- and the other without [11.8.1]
-
-3.2.0.0 Aug 00
-
- - By default executables should not be built with the debugging
- option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
- package with debugging information optionally. Details in [10.1]
- - Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
- files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
- should always be generated for the upstream changes [12.8]
- - Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
- shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
- - Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
- has been codified:
- - X server (virtual package xserver) [11.8.2]
- - X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) [11.8.3]
- - X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
- /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
- calculation guidelines) [11.8.4]
- - X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) [12.8.5]
- - X application defaults [11.8.6]
- - Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
- has been clarified; see [11.8.7]
- - No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles [11.7.3]
- - Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
- always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
- order be correct [1]
-
-3.1.1.0 Nov 1999
-
- - Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
- etc. Should not affect many packages [7.1]
-
-3.1.0.0 Oct 1999
-
- - /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
- /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
- and prerm scripts. Details are in [defunct]
- - Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) [7.1, 7.6]
- - /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
- (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
- update-rc.d instead) [9.3.4]
- - update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
- /etc/rc?.d/[SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
- directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
- because the file-rc package handles this information in an
- incompatible way.) [9.3.3]
- - Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
- with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
- /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself [12.7]
- - Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
- /var/lib [9.1.1]
- - Added MIME sub-policy document [9.7; mime-policy]
- - VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR [12.4]
- - Modified liblockfile description, which affects
- mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
- details [11.6]
- - If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
- version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
- using lynx -dump -nolist.) [12.7]
- - Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
- added [3.2.1]
-
-3.0.1.0 Jul 1999
-
- - Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for the
- packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the
- .la files must go in the run-time library package [10.2]
-
-3.0.0.0 Jun 1999
-
- - Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
- major change, and the implications of this move are probably
- not all known. [9.1]
- - Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
- control files, though all four digits are still permitted. [4.1]
- - The location of the GPL has changed to
- /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
- copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
- other major licenses [12.6]
- - Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
- include the .la files in the -dev packages [10.2]
- - Use logrotate to rotate log files [10.8]
- - section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
- System) [now 11.8]
- - There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
- that carries the full weight of Debian policy [9.6; menu-policy]
- - Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
- /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp [11.3]
-
-
-Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date **
-===========================================================================
-
-
-2.5.0.0 Oct 1998
-
- Policy Manual:
- - Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
- + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
- that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
- Section 5 and Section 6.
- + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
- new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
- "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
- and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
- Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
- gap.
- - Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
- upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
- upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
- /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
- + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
- changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
- - Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
- package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
- - Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
- files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
- - Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
- HURD.
-
-2.4.1.0 Apr 1998
-
- Policy Manual:
- - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
- + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
- symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
- (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
-
- - Updated section 4.9 Games:
- + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
- (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
-
- Packaging Manual:
- - Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
- ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
- installs shared libraries
- (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
-
-2.4.0.0 Jan 1998
-
- - Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
- + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
- + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
- interpreter
- + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
- (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
- the directory
+3.6.1.0
+--------
- - Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
- + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
- file extension as the referenced file
+Released Aug 2003.
+
++ *3.10.1*: Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
+ user prompts are now deprecated.
+
+3.6.0
+------
+
+Released Jul 2003.
+
++ Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
+ the minor version number:
++ Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
+ sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
+ In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
+ fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
+ and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
+ is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
+ optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
+ deb-building tool-chain.
++ Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
+ chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
+ Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
+ properly, that is, some sect1s became sects etc.
++ Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
+ with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
+ everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
+ Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
+ talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
+ and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
+ sections about changelog files.
++ *menu policy*: Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
+ sub-policy
++ *C.2.2*: Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.
++ *10.2*: shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
+ use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
++ *7.6*: build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
+ target.
+
+3.5.10
+-------
+
+Released May 2003.
+
++ *11.8.3*: packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
+ ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
+ like xterm does.
++ *11.8.4*: Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
+ Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives
+
+3.5.9.0
+--------
- - Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
- + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
+Released Mar 2003.
- - Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts [in /etc/init.d]:
- + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
- start, stop, restart, force-reload
- + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
- the service
++ *3.4.2*: The section describing the Description: package field once again has
+ full details of the long description format.
++ *4.2*: Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
+ build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
+ and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
++ *9.3.2*: When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
+ the init script should start the service.
++ *12.6*: If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
+ example files can be installed into `/usr/share/doc/package' (rather
+ than `/usr/share/doc/package/examples').
- - Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
- + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
- be installed into /etc/cron.d
+3.5.8.0
+--------
- - Updated section 3.7 Menus:
- + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
- (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
- has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
- obsolete)
+Released Nov 2002.
+
++ *12.7*: It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
+ sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
+ documented in the changelog file.
++ *7.6*: `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts', `Build-Depends-Indep',
+ and `Build-Conflicts-Indep' must also be satisfied when the clean
+ target is called.
++ *menu policy*: A new Apps/Science menu section is available
++ *debconf policy*: debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
++ *12.1*: It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
+ manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs
+ are still a bug.
+
+3.5.7.0
+--------
- - New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
- + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
- handled
+Released Aug 2002.
+
++ Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
+ postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
++ *2.2.4*: cryptographic software may now be included in the main
+ archive.
++ *3.9*: task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
+ special Tasks: field in the control file.
++ *11.8.4*: window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when
+ they add themselves as an alternative for
+ /usr/bin/x-window-manager
++ *10.1*: The default compilation options have now changed, one should
+ provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
+ back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB\_BUILD\_OPTIONS
+ environment variable.
++ *7.6, 4.8*: Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
+ the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
+ `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
+ review the new rules.
++ *8*: Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
+ scripts. Long rationale.
+
+ *Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build rules, please see below*
+
+3.5.6.0
+--------
- - New section 3.9 Environment variables:
- + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
- reasonable default configuration
+Released Jul 2001.
+
++ *2.5*: Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
+ standard packages
++ *11.5*: Programs that access docs need to do so via /usr/share/doc, and
+ not via /usr/doc/ as was the policy previously
++ *12.3*: Putting documentation in /usr/doc versus /usr/share/doc is now
+ a ``serious'' policy violation.
++ *11.5*: For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
+ /usr/share/doc hierarchy. If one can't provide access controls for
+ the [http://localhost/doc/] directory, then it is preferred that one
+ ask permission to expose that information during the install.
++ *7*: There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
+ there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
+
+3.5.5.0
+--------
- - New section 4.6 News system configuration:
- + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
- by all news servers and clients
+Released May 2001.
+
++ *12.1*: Manpages should not rely on header information to have
+ alternative manpage names available; it should only use
+ symlinks or .so pages to do this
++ *Clarified note in 3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
+ examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
+ by scripts; see section 10.7.3 for the whole story*
++ Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of
+ dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
++ Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
+ packages just to change the Standards-Version!
++ *10.2*: Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
+ libraries
++ X Windows related things:
+ * *11.8.1*: Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
+ packages
+ * *11.8.3*: Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved
+ * *11.8.5*: X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
+ fonts for the X Window System
+ * *11.8.6*: Packages must not ship /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/
+ * *11.8.7*: X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
+ locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
+ * *11.8.8*: OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
+ OSF/Motif-linked ones
+
+3.5.4.0
+--------
- - Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
- + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
- as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
- + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
- against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
+Released Apr 2001.
- - Updated section 4.9 Games:
- + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
- non-X games
++ *11.6*: The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
+ /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
+ access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
+ details in
++ *11.9; perl-policy*: The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
+ proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
+ policy
+
-2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0 Sep 1997
+3.5.3.0
+--------
- * new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
- /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
+ Apr 2001
- * updated section about `Configuration files':
- packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
++ *7.1*: Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
+ ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
++ *10.7.3*: Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
+ in /usr/share/<package> or /usr/lib/<package>, with
+ symbolic links from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples as
+ needed
- * MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
+3.5.2.0
+--------
-2.2.0.0 Jul 1997
+Released Feb 2001.
- * added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
- use
- <arch>-linux
- where <arch> is one of the following:
- i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
++ *11.8.6*: X app-defaults directory has moved from
+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults to /etc/X11/app-defaults
- * detailed rules for /usr/local
+3.5.1.0
+--------
- * user ID's
+Released Feb 2001.
- * editor/pager policy
++ *8.1*: dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
+ run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
- * cron jobs
+3.5.0.0
+--------
- * device files
+Released Jan 2001.
- * don't install shared libraries as executable
++ *11.8.5*: Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
+ dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)
- * app-defaults files may not be conffiles
+3.2.1.1
+--------
-2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0 Mar 1997
+Released Jan 2001.
- * two programs with different functionality must not have the
- same name
++ Daemon startup scripts in /etc/init.d/ should not contain
+ modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
+ /etc/default/; see *9.3.2] for details
++ *12.3*: Files in /usr/share/doc must not be referenced by any
+ program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
+ /usr/share/<package>/, and symbolic links created as required
+ in /usr/share/doc/<package>/
++ Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
+ policy document
- * "Webstandard 3.0"
+3.2.1.0
+--------
- * "Standard for Console Messages"
+Released Aug 00.
- * Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
++ *11.8.1*: A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
+ binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
+ and the other without
- * Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
+3.2.0.0
+--------
+
+Released Aug 00.
+
++ *10.1*: By default executables should not be built with the debugging
+ option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
+ package with debugging information optionally. Details in
++ *12.8*: Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
+ files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
+ should always be generated for the upstream changes
++ Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)
+ shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
++ Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
+ has been codified:
+ - *11.8.2*: X server (virtual package xserver)
+ - *11.8.3*: X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
+ - *11.8.4*: X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
+ /usr/bin/x-window-manager alternative, with priority
+ calculation guidelines)
+ - *12.8.5*: X fonts (this section has been written from scratch)
+ - *11.8.6*: X application defaults
++ *11.8.7*: Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
+ has been clarified; see
++ *11.7.3*: No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles
++ *8*: Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
+ always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
+ order be correct
+
+3.1.1.0
+--------
+
+Released Nov 1999.
+
++ *7.1*: Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
+ etc. Should not affect many packages
+
+3.1.0.0
+--------
+
+Released Oct 1999.
+
++ /usr/doc/<package> has to be a symlink pointing to
+ /usr/share/doc/<package>, to be maintained by postinst
+ and prerm scripts. Details are in *defunct*
++ *7.1, 7.6*: Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.)
++ *9.3.4*: /etc/rc.boot has been deprecated in favour of /etc/rcS.d.
+ (Packages should not be touching this directory, but should use
+ update-rc.d instead)
++ *9.3.3*: update-rc.d is now the *only* allowable way of accessing the
+ /etc/rc?.d/*SK]??* links. Any scripts which manipulate them
+ directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
+ because the file-rc package handles this information in an
+ incompatible way.)
++ *12.7*: Architecture-specific examples go in /usr/lib/<package>/examples
+ with symlinks from /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples/* or from
+ /usr/share/doc/<package>/examples itself
++ *9.1.1*: Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts /var/state to
+ /var/lib
++ *9.7; mime-policy*: Added MIME sub-policy document
++ *12.4*: VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
++ *11.6*: Modified liblockfile description, which affects
+ mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
+ details
++ *12.7*: If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
+ version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
+ using lynx -dump -nolist.)
++ *3.2.1*: Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
+ added
+
+3.0.1.0
+--------
-2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0 Nov 1996
+Released Jul 1999.
- * Some changes WRT shared libraries
++ *10.2*: Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
+ the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
+ files must go in the run-time library package
-2.1.1.0 Sep 1996
+3.0.0.0
+--------
+
+Released Jun 1999.
- * No hard links in source packages
++ *9.1*: Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
+ major change, and the implications of this move are probably
+ not all known.
++ *4.1*: Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
+ control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
++ *12.6*: The location of the GPL has changed to
+ /usr/share/common-licenses. This may require changing the
+ copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
+ other major licenses
++ *10.2*: Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
+ include the .la files in the -dev packages
++ *10.8*: Use logrotate to rotate log files
++ *now 11.8*: section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
+ System)
++ *9.6; menu-policy*: There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
+ that carries the full weight of Debian policy
++ *11.3*: Programs which need to modify the files /var/run/utmp,
+ /var/log/wtmp and /var/log/lastlog must be installed setgid utmp
- * Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
- * Shared libraries must be installed stripped
+ *Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date*
-2.1.0.0 Aug 1996
- * Upstream changelog must be installed too
+2.5.0.0
+--------
-[1] FOOTNOTE DEFINITION NOT FOUND: 8
+Released Oct 1998.
+
+Policy Manual:
++ Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files
+ + Section 3.3 ("Files") was moved to Section 4. The Sections
+ that were Section 4 and Section 5 were moved down to become
+ Section 5 and Section 6.
+ + What was Section 5.5 ("Log files") is now a subsection of the
+ new Section 4 ("Files"), becoming section 4.8, placed after
+ "Configuration files", moving the Section 4.8 ("Permissions
+ and owners") to Section 4.9. All subsections of the old
+ Section 5 after 5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
+ gap.
++ Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
+ upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML/ These
+ upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
+ /usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
+ + Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
+ changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
++ Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
+ package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
++ Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
+ files. The correct location is /usr/doc/package/copyright
++ Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
+ HURD.
+
+2.4.1.0
+--------
+
+Released Apr 1998.
+
+* Policy Manual:
+ + Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:
+ + symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
+ symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
+ (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)
+
+ + Updated section 4.9 Games:
+ + manpages for games should be installed in /usr/man/man6
+ (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)
+
+* Packaging Manual:
+ + Updated prefix of chapter 12, Shared Libraries:
+ ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
+ installs shared libraries
+ (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #6, fixes:bug#20515)
+
+
+2.4.0.0
+--------
+
+Released Jan 1998
+
++ Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:
+ + /bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
+ + scripts including bashisms have to specify /bin/bash as
+ interpreter
+ + scripts which create files in world-writable directories
+ (e.g., in /tmp) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
+ the directory
+
++ Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
+ + symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
+ file extension as the referenced file
+
++ Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:
+ + /dev/tty* serial devices should be used instead of /dev/cu*
+
++ Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in /etc/init.d:
+ + all /etc/init.d scripts have to provide the following options:
+ start, stop, restart, force-reload
+ + the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
+ the service
+
++ Updated section 3.5 Cron jobs:
+ + cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
+ be installed into /etc/cron.d
+
++ Updated section 3.7 Menus:
+ + removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
+ (the corresponding section in 4.4, Web servers and applications,
+ has been removed in policy 2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
+ obsolete)
+
++ New section 3.8 Keyboard configuration:
+ + details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
+ handled
+
++ New section 3.9 Environment variables:
+ + no program must depend on environment variables to get a
+ reasonable default configuration
+
++ New section 4.6 News system configuration:
+ + /etc/news/organization and /etc/news/server should be supported
+ by all news servers and clients
+
++ Updated section 4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
+ + programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
+ as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
+ + if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
+ against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
+
++ Updated section 4.9 Games:
+ + games for X Windows have to be installed in /usr/games, just as
+ non-X games
+
+2.3.0.1, 2.3.0.0
+-----------------
+
+Released Sep 1997.
+
++ new section `4.2 Daemons' including rules for
+ /etc/services, /etc/protocols, /etc/rpc, and /etc/inetd.conf
+
++ updated section about `Configuration files':
+ packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
+
++ MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
+
+2.2.0.0
+--------
+
+Released July 1997.
+
++ added section 4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
+ use
+ <arch>-linux
+ where <arch> is one of the following:
+ i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
+
++ detailed rules for /usr/local
+
++ user ID's
+
++ editor/pager policy
+
++ cron jobs
+
++ device files
+
++ don't install shared libraries as executable
+
++ app-defaults files may not be conffiles
+
+2.1.3.2, 2.1.3.1, 2.1.3.0
+--------------------------
+
+Released Mar 1997.
+
++ two programs with different functionality must not have the
+ same name
+
++ "Webstandard 3.0"
+
++ "Standard for Console Messages"
+
++ Libraries should be compiled with `-D\_REENTRANT'
+
++ Libraries should be stripped with "strip --strip-unneeded"
+
+2.1.2.2, 2.1.2.1, 2.1.2.0
+--------------------------
+
+Released Nov 1996.
+
++ Some changes WRT shared libraries
+
+2.1.1.0
+--------
+
+Released Sep 1996.
+
++ No hard links in source packages
+
++ Do not use dpkg-divert or update-alternatives without consultation
+
++ Shared libraries must be installed stripped
+
+2.1.0.0
+--------
-[2] FOOTNOTE DEFINITION NOT FOUND: 7
+Released Aug 1996.
++ Upstream changelog must be installed too
projects / debian / debian-policy.git / commitdiff