~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/vivid/debian-policy/vivid-proposed

<!doctype debiandoc system>

<debiandoc>

  <book> 

    <title> Policy checklist for upgrading your packages </title>

      <author> Bill Allombert <email/ballombe@debian.org/ </author>

      <author> Josip Rodin </author>

      <author> Julian Gilbey </author>

      <author> Russ Allbery </author>

      <author> Manoj Srivastava <email/srivasta@debian.org/

<chapt> About the checklist

<p>

The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process

of old packages.  Note that this list is not "official"; it simply

gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to

need to make changes to your package in light of this.  If you have

doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you

think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to

the Policy Manual itself.  All of the changes from version 3.0.0

onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the

issue: [3.4] means section 3.4.  The section numbering changed when

the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers

used below refer to the current version.

<p>

Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your

package was checked against last (indicated in the "Standards-Version"

field of the source package).  Then move upwards until the top and

check which of the items on the list might concern your package.  Note

which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy

Manual for details.  If you are upgrading from Policy version < 2.5.0,

it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of

picking your way through this list.

<chapt> The checklist

<sect> Version 3.9.0.0

<p>

Release Jun 2010.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>4.4, 5.6.15</tag>

  <item>The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the

  Date control field is now precisely specified.

  </item>

<tag>5.1</tag>

  <item>A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a

  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>

<tag>5.5, 5.6.16</tag>

  <item>The <tt>Format</tt> field of <file>.changes</file> files is now

  1.8.  The <tt>Format</tt> field syntax for source

  package <file>.dsc</file> files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it

  is used for a different purpose than the <tt>Format</tt> field

  for <file>.changes</file> files.

  </item>

<tag>5.6.2</tag>

  <item>The syntax of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> field is now must rather

  than should.

  </item>

<tag>5.6.3</tag>

  <item>The comma separating entries in <tt>Uploaders</tt> is now must

  rather than should.

  </item>

<tag>5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1</tag>

  <item>Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific

  architectures in <file>debian/control</file> and <file>*.dsc</file>

  Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build

  relationships.

  </item>

<tag>6.3</tag>

  <item>Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a

  controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive

  behavior (debconf handles this).  Maintainer scripts may abort if there

  is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority

  question, but should avoid this if possible.

  </item>

<tag>7.3, 7.6.1</tag>

  <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should be used with <tt>Replaces</tt> for moving

  files between packages.

  </item>

<tag>7.4</tag>

  <item><tt>Breaks</tt> should normally be used instead

  of <tt>Conflicts</tt> for transient issues and moving files between

  packages.  New documentation of when each should be used.

  </item>

<tag>7.5</tag>

  <item>Use <tt>Conflicts</tt> with <tt>Provides</tt> if only one provider

  of a virtual facility can ge installed at a time.

  </item>

<tag>8.4</tag>

  <item>All shared library development files are no longer required to be

  in the <tt>-dev</tt> package, only be available when the <tt>-dev</tt>

  package is installed.  This allows the <tt>-dev</tt> package to be split

  as long as it depends on the additional packages.

  </item>

<tag>9.2.2</tag>

  <item>The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.

  </item>

<tag>9.3.2, 10.4</tag>

  <item><file>init.d</file> scripts are a possible exception from the

  normal requirement to use <tt>set -e</tt> in each shell script.

  </item>

<tag>12.5</tag>

  <item>The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that

  should be referenced from <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>.

  It should instead be included directly

  in <file>debian/copyright</file>, although it will still be in

  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>

<tag>perl</tag>

  <item><package>perl-base</package> now

  provides <package>perlapi-<var>abiname</var></package> instead of a

  package based solely on the Perl version.  Perl packages must now depend

  on <package>perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}</package>, falling back

  on <tt>$Config{version}</tt> if <tt>$Config{debian_abi}</tt> is not set.

  </item>

<tag>perl</tag>

  <item>Packages using <file>Makefile.PL</file> should use

  <tt>DESTDIR</tt> rather than <tt>PREFIX</tt> to install into the package

  staging area.  <tt>PREFIX</tt> only worked due to a Debian-local patch.

  </item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.8.4.0

<p>

Release Jan 2010.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>9.1.1</tag>

  <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.

  Permitting files to instead be installed to <file>/lib/triplet</file> and

  <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>

<tag>9.1.1</tag>

  <item><file>/sys</file> and <file>/selinux</file> directories are explicitly

  allowed as an exception to the FHS.

  </item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.8.3.0

<p>

Released Aug 2009.

</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>

<tag>5.6.8</tag>

  <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain <em/all/ in

  combination with other architectures.  Clarify when <em/all/ and <em/any/

  may be used in different versions of the field.

  </item>

<tag>5.6.14</tag>

  <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading

  to multiple distributions with one <file>*.changes</file> file.

  </item>

<tag>5.6.19</tag>

  <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>

<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>

<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>

<tag>12.1</tag>

  <item>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.

  </item>

<tag>12.2</tag>

  <item>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.

  </item>

<tag>perl</tag>

  <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned

  Depend and Build-Depend on <tt>perl &gt;= 5.6.0-16</tt> has been removed.

  </item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.8.2.0

<p>

Released Jun 2009.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>2.4</tag>

  <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded.  See

  <url id="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"

  name="this debian-devel-announce message">

  for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize

  packages.                                                

  </item>

<tag>3.9.1</tag>

  <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,

  though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall

  back on other methods.                                   

  </item>

<tag>5.6.1</tag>

  <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly

  spelled out.

  </item>

<tag>9.1</tag>

  <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the

  FHS permitting <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.

  </item>

<tag>9.1.3</tag>

  <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use

  <file>/var/mail</file>.

  </item>

<tag>11.8.5</tag>

  <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated.  The X backend was disabled

  starting in lenny.                                       

  </item>

<tag>12.5</tag>

  <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 is included in

  common-licenses and should be referenced from there.     

  </item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.8.1.0

<p>

Released  Mar 2009.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>3.8</tag>

  <item>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.    

  </item>

<tag>4.4</tag>

  <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>

<tag>4.4.1</tag>

  <item>Remove alternative changelog formats.  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

  test suite provided by the package should not be run.    

  </item>

<tag>5.1</tag>

  <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>

<tag>9.3</tag>

  <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially.  They are not

  sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by <prgn>/bin/sh</prgn> regardless

  of the #! line.  This brings Policy in line with the long-standing

  behavior of the init system in Debian.

  </item>

<tag>9.3.2</tag>

  <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not

  start the daemon again if it's already running.          

  </item>

<tag>9.3.2</tag>

  <item><file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted as

  temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary

  subdirectories dynamically.                                             

  </item>

<tag>10.4</tag>

  <item> <file>/bin/sh</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple

   variable arguments and supports assignment.                       

  </item>

<tag>11.6</tag>

  <item>User mailboxes may be mode 600 and owned by the user rather than

  mode 660, owned by user, and group mail.                 

  </item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.8.0.0

<p>

Released  Jun 2008.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>2.4, 3.7</tag>

<item>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.                       

<tag>4.9</tag>

<item>If <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be

  compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever

  else is necessary.

<tag>4.9.1, 10.1</tag>

<item>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.                                

<tag>4.9.1</tag>

<item>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                     

<tag>4.13</tag>

<item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other

  packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be

  used that way.                                           

<tag>4.14</tag>

<item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and

  building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a

  <file>debian/README.source</file> 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.                                                 

<tag>5.6.3</tag>

<item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.    

<tag>5.6.12</tag>

<item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of 0 in

  a version number.                                        

<tag>5.6.23</tag>

<item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.               

<tag>6.5, 6.6, 7</tag>

<item>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.        

<tag>8.1, 8.2</tag>

<item>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.                                        

<tag>9.5</tag>

<item>Files in <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file> must be

  configuration files (upgraded from should).  Mention the hourly

  directory.                                               

<tag>11.8.6</tag>

<item>Packages providing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> files need not

  conflict with  <tt> xbase (&lt;&lt; 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>, which is

  long-obsolete.           

<tag>12.1</tag>

<item>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.                                                   

<tag>12.5</tag>

<item>The Apache 2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be

  referenced rather than quoted in <file>debian/copyright</file>.

<tag>12.5</tag>

<item>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.                                             

<tag>debconf</tag>

<item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.     

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.7.3.0

<p>

Released  Dec 2007.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>5.6.12</tag>

<item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before

  anything, even the end of a part.                        

<tag>10.4</tag>

<item>Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> supports local (at a basic

  level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary

  logical operators.                                       

<tag>8.5</tag>

<item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place

  of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same

  library.                                                 

<tag>menu policy</tag>

<item>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.                      

<tag>5.6.1</tag>

<item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number

  in parentheses.                                          

<tag>5.6.17</tag>

<item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,

  critical, or emergency.                                  

<tag>8.6</tag>

<item>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.                                               

<tag>3.9.1</tag>

<item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management

  specification must allow for translation of their messages by using

  a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.               

<tag>12.5</tag>

<item>GFDL 1.2, GPL 3, and LGPL 3 are now in common-licenses and should

  be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.7.2.2

<p>

Released  Oct 2006.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a

    should to a must)</item>   

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.7.2.0

<p>

Released  Apr 2006.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change. </item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.7.1.0

<p>

Released  Apr 2006.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>10.2</tag>

<item>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.                                          

<tag>11.8.7</tag>

<item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories

  <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if

  they do so, they must pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (&gt;= 1:7.0.0)</tt>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.7.0.0

<p>

Released  Apr 2006.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>11.5</tag>

<item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install

  them in <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/</file> directories.  This location change

  perhaps should be documented in NEWS                     

<tag>11.5</tag>

<item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of

  cgi-lib to <file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib</file>.

<tag>9.1.1</tag>

<item>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 <file>/media</file>, <file>/srv</file>,

  etc.  may be of interest.

<tag>5.1, 5.6.3</tag>

<item>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.

<tag>10.4</tag>

<item>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.

<tag>9.3.3.2</tag>

<item>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.

<tag>11.8.5.2, 11.8.7, etc</tag>

<item>We no longer use <file>/usr/X11R6</file>, since we have

  migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts

  live in <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> now, and <file>/usr/X11R6</file>

  is gone.

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.6.2.0

<p>

Released  2005

</p><p><taglist>

<tag></tag>

<item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.

</item>

<tag>8.1</tag>

<item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of

  <file>/usr/lib/</file> or <file>/usr/share</file>, and preferably the shared

  lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).

</item>

<tag>11.5</tag>

<item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to

  allow packages to share image files with the web server

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.6.1.0

<p>

Released  Aug 2003.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>3.10.1</tag>

<item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf

  user prompts are now deprecated.

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.6.0

<p>

Released  Jul 2003.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag></tag>

<item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of

  the minor version number:

<tag></tag>

<item>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.

<tag></tag>

<item>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 sects became sects etc.

<tag></tag>

<item>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.

<tag>menu policy</tag>

<item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu

  sub-policy

<tag>C.2.2</tag>

<item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-8 encoded.

<tag>10.2</tag>

<item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they

  use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.

<tag>7.6</tag>

<item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean

  target.

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.10

<p>

Released  May 2003.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>11.8.3</tag>

<item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package

  ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly

  like xterm does.

<tag>11.8.4</tag>

<item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification

  Project may add 40 points for ranking in the alternatives

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.9.0

<p>

Released  Mar 2003.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>3.4.2</tag>

<item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has

  full details of the long description format.

<tag>4.2</tag>

<item>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).

<tag>9.3.2</tag>

<item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,

  the init script should start the service.

<tag>12.6</tag>

<item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the

  example files can be installed into <file>/usr/share/doc/package</file>

  (rather than <file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples</file>).

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.8.0

<p>

Released  Nov 2002.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>12.7</tag>

<item>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.

<tag>7.6</tag>

<item><var/Build-Depends/, <var/Build-Conflicts/, <var/Build-Depends-Indep/,

  and <var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean

  target is called.

<tag>menu policy</tag>

<item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available

<tag>debconf policy</tag>

<item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.

<tag>12.1</tag>

<item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent

  manual pages to undocumented(7). Missing manual pages for programs

  are still a bug.

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.7.0

<p>

Released  Aug 2002.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag></tag>

<item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in

  postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.

<tag>2.2.4</tag>

<item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main

  archive.

<tag>3.9</tag>

<item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a

  special Tasks: field in the control file.

<tag>11.8.4</tag>

<item>window managers that support netwm can now add 20 points when

  they add themselves as an alternative for

 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>

<tag>10.1</tag>

<item>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.

<tag>7.6, 4.8</tag>

<item>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.

<tag>8</tag>

<item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer

  scripts. Long rationale.

</taglist></p>

<p><em>

Added the last note in 3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build

rules, please see below

</em></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.6.0

<p>

Released  Jul 2001.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>2.5</tag>

<item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority

  standard packages

<tag>11.5</tag>

<item>Programs that access docs need to do so via <file>/usr/share/doc</file>,

  and not via <file>/usr/doc/</file> as was the policy previously

<tag>12.3</tag>

<item>Putting documentation in <file>/usr/doc</file> versus

 <file>/usr/share/doc</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.

<tag>11.5</tag>

<item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the

  <file>/usr/share/doc</file> 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.

<tag>7</tag>

<item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and

  there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.5.0

<p>

Released  May 2001.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>12.1</tag>

<item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have

  alternative manpage names available; it should only use

  symlinks or .so pages to do this

</item>

<tag></tag>

<item><em> 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</em>

</item>

<tag></tag>

<item>Included a new section 10.9.1 describing the use of

  dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy

</item>

<tag></tag>

<item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your

  packages just to change the Standards-Version!

</item>

<tag>10.2</tag>

<item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared

  libraries

</item>

<tag>X Windows related things:</tag>

<item><taglist>

  <tag>11.8.1</tag>

  <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related

      packages

  </item>

  <tag>11.8.3</tag>

  <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved </item>

  <tag>11.8.5</tag>

  <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide

      fonts for the X Window System

  </item>

  <tag>11.8.6</tag>

  <item>Packages must not ship <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>

  </item>

  <tag>11.8.7</tag>

  <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS

      locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this

  </item>

  <tag>11.8.8</tag>

  <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as

      OSF/Motif-linked ones

  </item>

  </taglist></item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.4.0

<p> Released  Apr 2001.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>11.6</tag>

<item>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

</item>

<tag>11.9; perl-policy</tag>

<item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy

  proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl

  policy

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.3.0

<p> Released Apr 2001

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>7.1</tag>

<item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less

  ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages

</item>

<tag>10.7.3</tag>

<item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live

  in <file>/usr/share/&lt;package&gt;</file> or

  <file>/usr/lib/&lt;package&gt;</file>, with symbolic links from

  <file>/usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples</file> as needed

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.2.0

<p> Released Feb 2001.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>11.8.6</tag>

<item>X app-defaults directory has moved from

  <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</file> to

  <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults</file>

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.1.0

<p> Released Feb 2001.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>8.1</tag>

<item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be

  run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.5.0.0

<p> Released Jan 2001.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>11.8.5</tag>

<item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a

  dependency on xutils (>= 4.0.2)

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.2.1.1

<p> Released Jan 2001.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>9.3.2</tag>

<item>Daemon startup scripts in <file>/etc/init.d/</file> should not contain

  modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in

  <file>/etc/default/</file>

</item>

<tag>12.3</tag>

<item>Files in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> must not be referenced by any

  program.  If such files are needed, they must be placed in

  <file>/usr/share/&lt;package&gt;/</file>, and symbolic links

  created as required in <file>/usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/</file>

</item>

<tag></tag>

<item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the

  policy document

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.2.1.0

<p> Released Aug 00.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>11.8.1</tag>

<item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two

  binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,

  and the other without

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.2.0.0

<p> Released Aug 00.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>10.1</tag>

<item>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

</item>

<tag>12.8</tag>

<item>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

</item>

<tag></tag>

<item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (3.2)

  shall probably need sweeping changes in policy

</item>

<tag></tag>

<item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features

  has been codified:

  <taglist>

  <tag>11.8.2</tag>

  <item>X server (virtual package xserver) </item>

  <tag>11.8.3</tag>

  <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator) </item>

  <tag>11.8.4</tag>

  <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and

      <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file> alternative, with priority

      calculation guidelines)

  </item>

  <tag>12.8.5</tag>

  <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch) </item>

  <tag>11.8.6</tag>

  <item>X application defaults </item>

  </taglist>

</item>

<tag>11.8.7</tag>

<item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues

  has been clarified;

</item>

<tag>11.7.3</tag>

<item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles </item>

<tag>8</tag>

<item>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

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.1.1.0

<p> Released Nov 1999.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>7.1</tag>

<item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends

  etc.  Should not affect many packages

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.1.0.0

<p> Released Oct 1999.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>defunct</tag>

<item><file>/usr/doc/&lt;package&gt;</file> has to be a symlink pointing to

  <file>/usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;</file>, to be maintained by postinst

  and prerm scripts.

</item>

<tag>7.1, 7.6</tag>

<item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.) </item>

<tag>9.3.4</tag>

<item><file>/etc/rc.boot</file> has been deprecated in favour of

  <file>/etc/rcS.d</file>.  (Packages should not be touching this directory,

  but should use update-rc.d instead)

</item>

<tag>9.3.3</tag>

<item>update-rc.d is now the <em>only</em> allowable way of accessing the

  <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*</file> 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.)

</item>

<tag>12.7</tag>

<item>Architecture-specific examples go in

  <file>/usr/lib/&lt;package&gt;/examples</file>

  with symlinks from <file>/usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples/*</file>

  or from <file>/usr/share/doc/&lt;package&gt;/examples</file> itself

</item>

<tag>9.1.1</tag>

<item>Updated FHS to a 2.1 draft; this reverts <file>/var/state</file> to

  <file>/var/lib</file>

</item>

<tag>9.7; mime-policy</tag>

<item>Added MIME sub-policy document </item>

<tag>12.4</tag>

<item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR

</item>

<tag>11.6</tag>

<item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects

  mailbox-accessing programs.  Please see the policy document for

  details

</item>

<tag>12.7</tag>

<item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only

  version should also be included.  (Such a version may be prepared

  using <prgn>lynx -dump -nolist</prgn>.)

</item>

<tag>3.2.1</tag>

<item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates

  added

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.0.1.0

<p> Released Jul 1999.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>10.2</tag>

<item>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

</item>

</taglist></p>

<sect> Version 3.0.0.0

<p> Released Jun 1999.

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>9.1</tag>

<item>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.

</item>

<tag>4.1</tag>

<item>Only 3 digits of the Standards version need be included in

  control files, though all four digits are still permitted.

</item>

<tag>12.6</tag>

<item>The location of the GPL has changed to

  <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>. This may require changing the

  copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and

  other major licenses

</item>

<tag>10.2</tag>

<item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must

  include the .la files in the -dev packages

</item>

<tag>10.8</tag>

<item>Use logrotate to rotate log files

</item>

<tag>now 11.8</tag>

<item>section 5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window

  System)

</item>

<tag>9.6; menu-policy</tag>

<item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,

  that carries the full weight of Debian policy

</item>

<tag>11.3</tag>

<item>Programs which need to modify the files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>,

  <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be

  installed setgid utmp

</item>

</taglist></p>

<p><em>

   Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date

</em></p>

<sect> Version 2.5.0.0

<p> Released Oct 1998.

Policy Manual:

</p><p><list>

<item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section 4, Files

  <list>

  <item>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.

  </item>

  <item>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.

  </item>

  </list></item>

<item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate

  upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These

  upstream changelog files should now be accessible as

  <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz</file>

</item>

<item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,

    changelog name to the Debian mandated name.

</item>

<item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some

  package, though not necessarily the main binary package.

  </item>

<item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright

  files. The correct location is <file>/usr/doc/package/copyright</file>

  </item>

<item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the

  HURD.

  </item>

</list></p>

<sect> Version 2.4.1.0

<p> Released Apr 1998.

</p>

<sect1> Policy Manual:

<p><taglist>

<tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic links:</tag>

  <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,

    symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute

    (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 2)

  </item>

<tag>Updated section 4.9 Games:</tag>

  <item>manpages for games should be installed in <file>/usr/man/man6</file>

    (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#6, topic 3)

  </item>

</taglist></p>

<sect1> Packaging Manual:

<p><list>

<item>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)

</item>

</list></p>

<sect> Version 2.4.0.0

<p> Released Jan 1998

</p><p><taglist>

<tag>Updated section 3.3.4 Scripts:</tag>

  <item><list>

  <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell

  <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify <file>/bin/bash</file>

    as interpreter

  <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories

    (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating

    the directory

  </list></item>

<tag>Updated section 3.3.5 Symbolic Links:</tag>

  <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same

    file extension as the referenced file

  </item>

<tag>Updated section 3.3.6 Device files:</tag>

  <item><file>/dev/tty*</file> serial devices should be used instead of

  <file>/dev/cu*</file>

  </item>

<tag>Updated section 3.4.2 Writing the scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>:

  <item><list>

  <item>all <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts have to provide the following