1 <!doctype debiandoc system
>
5 <title> Policy checklist for upgrading your packages
</title>
6 <author> Bill Allombert
<email/ballombe@debian.org/
</author>
7 <author> Josip Rodin
</author>
8 <author> Julian Gilbey
</author>
9 <author> Russ Allbery
</author>
10 <author> Manoj Srivastava
<email/srivasta@debian.org/
12 <chapt> About the checklist
14 The checklist below has been created to simplify the upgrading process
15 of old packages. Note that this list is not
"official"; it simply
16 gives an indication of what has changed and whether you are likely to
17 need to make changes to your package in light of this. If you have
18 doubts about a certain topic, if you need more details, or if you
19 think some other package does not comply with policy, please refer to
20 the Policy Manual itself. All of the changes from version
3.0.0
21 onwards indicate which section of the Policy Manual discusses the
22 issue: [
3.4] means section
3.4. The section numbering changed when
23 the packaging manual was incorporated into policy; the section numbers
24 used below refer to the current version.
26 Here is how the check list works: Check which policy version your
27 package was checked against last (indicated in the
"Standards-Version"
28 field of the source package). Then move upwards until the top and
29 check which of the items on the list might concern your package. Note
30 which sections of policy discuss this, and then check out the Policy
31 Manual for details. If you are upgrading from Policy version
< 2.5.0,
32 it may be easier to check through the whole of policy instead of
33 picking your way through this list.
37 <sect> Version
3.8.5.0
44 <item> The UID range of user accounts is extended to
1000-
59999.
48 <sect> Version
3.8.4.0
55 <item> An FHS exception has been granted for multiarch libraries.
56 Permitting files to instead be installed to
<file>/lib/triplet
</file> and
57 <file>/usr/lib/triplet
</file> directories.
60 <item>Explicitly state that packages may not contain named pipes and
61 should instead create them in postinst and remove them in prerm or postrm.
64 <item><file>/sys
</file> and
<file>/selinux
</file> directories are explicitly
65 allowed as an exception to the FHS.
69 <sect> Version
3.8.3.0
75 <item>Add DEB_*_ARCH_CPU and DEB_*_ARCH_OS variables and
76 recommend them over GNU-style variables for that information.
79 <item>Source package Architecture fields may contain
<em/all/ in
80 combination with other architectures. Clarify when
<em/all/ and
<em/any/
81 may be used in different versions of the field.
84 <item>The Debian archive software does not support uploading
85 to multiple distributions with one
<file>*.changes
</file> file.
88 <item>The Binary field may span multiple lines.
91 <item>Remove the permission for shared library packages to
92 install libraries in a non-standard location and modify
<file/ld.so.conf/.
93 Packages should either be installed in a standard library directory
94 or packages using them should be built with RPATH.
97 <item>Clarify installation directories for X programs and
98 remove the requirement to pre-depend on x11-common before installing
99 into
<file>/usr/include/X11
</file> and
<file>/usr/lib/X11
</file>.
102 <item>Remove the requirement that all characters in a manual
103 page be representable in the legacy encoding for that language.
106 <item>Localized man pages should either be kept up-to-date with
107 the original version or warn that they're not up-to-date, either
108 with warning text or by showing missing or changed portions in the
112 <item>install-info is now handled via triggers so packages no
113 longer need to invoke it in maintainer scripts. Info documents
114 should now have directory sections and entries in the document.
115 Packages containing info documents should add a dependency to
116 support partial upgrades.
119 <item>The requirement for Perl modules to have a versioned
120 Depend and Build-Depend on
<tt>perl
>=
5.6.0-
16</tt> has been removed.
124 <sect> Version
3.8.2.0
131 <item>The list of archive sections has been significantly expanded. See
132 <url id=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2009/03/msg00010.html"
133 name=
"this debian-devel-announce message">
134 for the list of new sections and rules for how to categorize
138 <item>All packages must use debconf or equivalent for user prompting,
139 though essential packages or their dependencies may also fall
140 back on other methods.
143 <item>The requirements for source package names are now explicitly
147 <item>Legacy XFree86 servers no longer get a special exception from the
148 FHS permitting
<file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-
4</file>.
151 <item>Removed obsolete dependency requirements for packages that use
152 <file>/var/mail
</file>.
155 <item>Speedo fonts are now deprecated. The X backend was disabled
159 <item>The GNU Free Documentation License version
1.3 is included in
160 common-licenses and should be referenced from there.
164 <sect> Version
3.8.1.0
171 <item>Care should be taken when adding functionality to essential and
172 such additions create an obligation to support that functionality
173 in essential forever unless significant work is done.
176 <item>Changelog files must be encoded in UTF-
8.
179 <item>Tighten some format requirements for changelog files from a should
183 <item>Remove alternative changelog formats. Debian only supports one
184 changelog format for the Debian Archive.
187 <item>New nocheck option for DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS indicating any build-time
188 test suite provided by the package should not be run.
191 <item>All control files must be encoded in UTF-
8.
194 <item>debian/control allows comment lines starting with # with no
195 preceding whitespace.
198 <item>Init scripts ending in .sh are not handled specially. They are not
199 sourced and are not guaranteed to be run by
<prgn>/bin/sh
</prgn> regardless
200 of the #! line. This brings Policy in line with the long-standing
201 behavior of the init system in Debian.
204 <item>The start action of an init script must exit successfully and not
205 start the daemon again if it's already running.
208 <item><file>/var/run
</file> and
<file>/var/lock
</file> may be mounted as
209 temporary filesystems, and init scripts must therefore create any necessary
210 subdirectories dynamically.
213 <item> <file>/bin/sh
</file> scripts may assume that local can take multiple
214 variable arguments and supports assignment.
217 <item>User mailboxes may be mode
600 and owned by the user rather than
218 mode
660, owned by user, and group mail.
222 <sect> Version
3.8.0.0
229 <item>The base section has been removed. contrib and non-free have been
230 removed from the section list; they are only categories. The base
231 system is now defined by priority.
233 <item>If
<prgn>dpkg-source -x
</prgn> doesn't provide the source that will be
234 compiled, a debian/rules patch target is recommended and should do whatever
236 <tag>4.9.1,
10.1</tag>
237 <item>Standardized the format of DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS. Specified permitted
238 characters for tags, required that tags be whitespace-separated,
239 allowed packages to assume non-conflicting tags, and required
240 unknown flags be ignored.
242 <item>Added parallel=n to the standardized DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS tags,
243 indicating that a package should be built using up to n parallel
244 processes if the package supports it
246 <item>Debian packages should not use convenience copies of code from other
247 packages unless the included package is explicitly intended to be
250 <item>If dpkg-source -x doesn't produce source ready for editing and
251 building with dpkg-buildpackage, packages should include a
252 <file>debian/README.source
</file> file explaining how to generate
253 the patched source, add a new modification, and remove an existing
254 modification. This file may also be used to document packaging a
255 new upstream release and any other complexity of the Debian build
258 <item>The Uploaders field in debian/control may be wrapped.
260 <item>An empty Debian revision is equivalent to a Debian revision of
0 in
263 <item>New Homepage field for upstream web sites.
264 <tag>6.5,
6.6,
7</tag>
265 <item>The Breaks field declares that this package breaks another and
266 prevents installation of the breaking package unless the package
267 named in Breaks is deconfigured first. This field should not be
268 used until the dpkg in Debian stable supports it.
270 <item>Clarify which files should go into a shared library package, into a
271 separate package, or into the -dev package. Suggest -tools instead
272 of -runtime for runtime support programs, since that naming is more
275 <item>Files in
<file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}
</file> must be
276 configuration files (upgraded from should). Mention the hourly
279 <item>Packages providing
<file>/etc/X11/Xresources
</file> files need not
280 conflict with
<tt> xbase (
<< 3.3.2.3a-
2)
</tt>, which is
283 <item>Manual pages in locale-specific directories should use either the
284 legacy encoding for that directory or UTF-
8. Country names should
285 not be included in locale-specific manual page directories unless
286 indicating a significant difference in the language. All
287 characters in the manual page source should be representable in the
288 legacy encoding for a locale even if the man page is encoded in
291 <item>The Apache
2.0 license is now in common-licenses and should be
292 referenced rather than quoted in
<file>debian/copyright
</file>.
294 <item>Packages in contrib and non-free should state in the copyright file
295 that the package is not part of Debian GNU/Linux and briefly
298 <item>Underscore (_) is allowed in debconf template names.
301 <sect> Version
3.7.3.0
308 <item>Package version numbers may contain tildes, which sort before
309 anything, even the end of a part.
311 <item>Scripts may assume that
<file>/bin/sh
</file> supports local (at a basic
312 level) and that its test builtin (if any) supports -a and -o binary
315 <item>The substitution variable ${binary:Version} should be used in place
316 of ${Source-Version} for dependencies between packages of the same
318 <tag>menu policy
</tag>
319 <item>Substantial reorganization and renaming of sections in the Debian
320 menu structure. Packages with menu entries should be reviewed to
321 see if the menu section has been renamed or if one of the new
322 sections would be more appropriate.
324 <item>The Source field in a .changes file may contain a version number
327 <item>The acceptable values for the Urgency field are low, medium, high,
328 critical, or emergency.
330 <item>The shlibs file now allows an optional type field, indicating the
331 type of package for which the line is valid. The only currently
332 supported type is udeb, used with packages for the Debian
335 <item>Packages following the Debian Configuration management
336 specification must allow for translation of their messages by using
337 a gettext-based system such as po-debconf.
339 <item>GFDL
1.2, GPL
3, and LGPL
3 are now in common-licenses and should
340 be referenced rather than quoted in debian/copyright.
343 <sect> Version
3.7.2.2
349 <tag>6.1</tag> <item>Maintainer scripts must not be world writeable (up from a
350 should to a must)
</item>
353 <sect> Version
3.7.2.0
359 <tag>11.5</tag> <item>Revert the cgi-lib change.
</item>
362 <sect> Version
3.7.1.0
369 <item>It is now possible to create shared libraries without
370 relocatable code (using -fPIC) in certain exceptional cases,
371 provided some procedures are followed, and for creating static
372 libraries with relocatable code (again, using -fPIC).
373 Discussion on debian-devel@lists.debian.org, getting a rough
374 consensus, and documenting it in README.Debian constitute most
377 <item>Packages should install any relevant files into the directories
378 <file>/usr/include/X11/
</file> and
<file>/usr/lib/X11/
</file>, but if
379 they do so, they must pre-depend on
<tt>x11-common (
>=
1:
7.0.0)
</tt>
382 <sect> Version
3.7.0.0
389 <item>Packages shipping web server CGI files are expected to install
390 them in
<file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib/
</file> directories. This location change
391 perhaps should be documented in NEWS
393 <item>Web server packages should include a standard scriptAlias of
394 cgi-lib to
<file>/usr/lib/cgi-lib
</file>.
396 <item>The version of FHS mandated by policy has been upped to
397 2.3. There should be no changes required for most packages,
398 though new top level directories
<file>/media
</file>,
<file>/srv
</file>,
399 etc. may be of interest.
400 <tag>5.1,
5.6.3</tag>
401 <item>All fields, apart from the Uploaders field, in the control file
402 are supposed to be a single logical line, which may be spread
403 over multiple physical lines (newline followed by space is
404 elided). However, any parser for the control file must allow
405 the Uploaders field to be spread over multiple physical lines
406 as well, to prepare for future changes.
408 <item>When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
409 PATH, the script name should not include an extension that
410 denotes the scripting language currently used to implement it.
413 <item>packages that invoke initscripts now must use invoke-rc.d to do
414 so since it also pays attention to run levels and other local
416 <tag>11.8.5.2,
11.8.7, etc
</tag>
417 <item>We no longer use
<file>/usr/X11R6
</file>, since we have
418 migrated away to using Xorg paths. This means, for one thing, fonts
419 live in
<file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/
</file> now, and
<file>/usr/X11R6
</file>
423 <sect> Version
3.6.2.0
430 <item>Recommend. doc-base, and not menu, for registering package documentation.
433 <item>Run time support programs should live in subdirectories of
434 <file>/usr/lib/
</file> or
<file>/usr/share
</file>, and preferably the shared
435 lib is named the same as the package name (to avoid name collisions).
438 <item>It is recommended that HTTP servers provide an alias /images to
439 allow packages to share image files with the web server
443 <sect> Version
3.6.1.0
450 <item>Prompting the user should be done using debconf. Non debconf
451 user prompts are now deprecated.
461 <item>Restructuring causing shifts in section numbers and bumping of
462 the minor version number:
464 <item>Many packaging manual appendices that were integrated into policy
465 sections are now empty, and replaced with links to the Policy.
466 In particular, the appendices that included the list of control
467 fields were updated (new fields like Closes, Changed-By were added)
468 and the list of fields for each of control, .changes and .dsc files
469 is now in Policy, and they're marked mandatory, recommended or
470 optional based on the current practice and the behavior of the
471 deb-building tool-chain.
473 <item>Elimination of needlessly deep section levels, primarily in the
474 chapter Debian Archive, from which two new chapters were split out,
475 Binary packages and Source packages. What remained was reordered
476 properly, that is, some sects became sects etc.
478 <item>Several sections that were redundant, crufty or simply not designed
479 with any sort of vision, were rearranged according to the formula that
480 everything should be either in the same place or properly interlinked.
481 Some things remained split up between different chapters when they
482 talked about different aspects of files: their content, their syntax,
483 and their placement in the file system. In particular, see the new
484 sections about changelog files.
485 <tag>menu policy
</tag>
486 <item>Added Games/Simulation and Apps/Education to menu
489 <item>Debian changelogs should be UTF-
8 encoded.
491 <item>shared libraries must be linked against all libraries that they
492 use symbols from in the same way that binaries are.
494 <item>build-depends-indep need not be satisfied during clean
498 <sect> Version
3.5.10
505 <item>packages providing the x-terminal-emulator virtual package
506 ought to ensure that they interpret the command line exactly
509 <item>Window managers compliant with the Window Manager Specification
510 Project may add
40 points for ranking in the alternatives
513 <sect> Version
3.5.9.0
520 <item>The section describing the Description: package field once again has
521 full details of the long description format.
523 <item>Clarified that if a package has non-build-essential
524 build-dependencies, it should have them listed in the Build-Depends
525 and related fields (i.e. it's not merely optional).
527 <item>When asked to restart a service that isn't already running,
528 the init script should start the service.
530 <item>If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
531 example files can be installed into
<file>/usr/share/doc/package
</file>
532 (rather than
<file>/usr/share/doc/package/examples
</file>).
535 <sect> Version
3.5.8.0
542 <item>It is no longer necessary to keep a log of changes to the upstream
543 sources in the copyright file. Instead, all such changes should be
544 documented in the changelog file.
546 <item><var/Build-Depends/,
<var/Build-Conflicts/,
<var/Build-Depends-Indep/,
547 and
<var/Build-Conflicts-Indep/ must also be satisfied when the clean
549 <tag>menu policy
</tag>
550 <item>A new Apps/Science menu section is available
551 <tag>debconf policy
</tag>
552 <item>debconf specification cleared up, various changes.
554 <item>It is no longer recommended to create symlinks from nonexistent
555 manual pages to undocumented(
7). Missing manual pages for programs
559 <sect> Version
3.5.7.0
566 <item>Packages no longer have to ask permission to call MAKEDEV in
567 postinst, merely notifying the user ought to be enough.
569 <item>cryptographic software may now be included in the main
572 <item>task packages are no longer permitted; tasks are now created by a
573 special Tasks: field in the control file.
575 <item>window managers that support netwm can now add
20 points when
576 they add themselves as an alternative for
577 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager
</file>
579 <item>The default compilation options have now changed, one should
580 provide debugging symbols in all cases, and optionally step
581 back optimization to -O0, depending on the DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS
582 environment variable.
584 <item>Added mention of build-arch, build-indep, etc, in describing
585 the relationships with `Build-Depends', `Build-Conflicts',
586 `Build-Depends-Indep', and `Build-Conflicts-Indep'. May need to
587 review the new rules.
589 <item>Changed rules on how, and when, to invoke ldconfig in maintainer
590 scripts. Long rationale.
594 Added the last note in
3.5.6 upgrading checklist item regarding build
595 rules, please see below
598 <sect> Version
3.5.6.0
605 <item>Emacs and TeX are no longer mandated by policy to be priority
608 <item>Programs that access docs need to do so via
<file>/usr/share/doc
</file>,
609 and not via
<file>/usr/doc/
</file> as was the policy previously
611 <item>Putting documentation in
<file>/usr/doc
</file> versus
612 <file>/usr/share/doc
</file> is now a ``serious'' policy violation.
614 <item>For web servers, one should not provide non-local access to the
615 <file>/usr/share/doc
</file> hierarchy. If one can't provide access
616 controls for the http://localhost/doc/ directory, then it is preferred
617 that one ask permission to expose that information during the install.
619 <item>There are new rules for build-indep/build-arch targets and
620 there is a new Build-Depend-Indep semantic.
623 <sect> Version
3.5.5.0
630 <item>Manpages should not rely on header information to have
631 alternative manpage names available; it should only use
632 symlinks or .so pages to do this
635 <item><em> Clarified note in
3.5.3.0 upgrading checklist regarding
636 examples and templates: this refers only to those examples used
637 by scripts; see section
10.7.3 for the whole story
</em>
640 <item>Included a new section
10.9.1 describing the use of
641 dpkg-statoverride; this does not have the weight of policy
644 <item>Clarify Standards-Version: you don't need to rebuild your
645 packages just to change the Standards-Version!
648 <item>Plugins are no longer bound by all the rules of shared
651 <tag>X Windows related things:
</tag>
654 <item>Clarification of priority levels of X Window System related
658 <item>Rules for defining x-terminal-emulator improved
</item>
660 <item>X Font policy rewritten: you must read this if you provide
661 fonts for the X Window System
664 <item>Packages must not ship
<file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/
</file>
667 <item>X-related packages should usually use the regular FHS
668 locations; imake-using packages are exempted from this
671 <item>OpenMotif linked binaries have the same rules as
672 OSF/Motif-linked ones
677 <sect> Version
3.5.4.0
678 <p> Released Apr
2001.
682 <item>The system-wide mail directory is now /var/mail, no longer
683 /var/spool/mail. Any packages accessing the mail spool should
684 access it via /var/mail and include a suitable Depends field;
687 <tag>11.9; perl-policy
</tag>
688 <item>The perl policy is now part of Debian policy
689 proper. Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl
694 <sect> Version
3.5.3.0
695 <p> Released Apr
2001
699 <item>Build-Depends arch syntax has been changed to be less
700 ambiguous. This should not affect any current packages
703 <item>Examples and templates files for use by scripts should now live
704 in
<file>/usr/share/
<package
></file> or
705 <file>/usr/lib/
<package
></file>, with symbolic links from
706 <file>/usr/share/doc/
<package
>/examples
</file> as needed
710 <sect> Version
3.5.2.0
712 <p> Released Feb
2001.
716 <item>X app-defaults directory has moved from
717 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults
</file> to
718 <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults
</file>
722 <sect> Version
3.5.1.0
724 <p> Released Feb
2001.
728 <item>dpkg-shlibdeps now uses objdump, so shared libraries have to be
729 run through dpkg-shlibdeps as well as executables
733 <sect> Version
3.5.0.0
735 <p> Released Jan
2001.
739 <item>Font packages for the X Window System must now declare a
740 dependency on xutils (
>=
4.0.2)
744 <sect> Version
3.2.1.1
746 <p> Released Jan
2001.
750 <item>Daemon startup scripts in
<file>/etc/init.d/
</file> should not contain
751 modifiable parameters; these should be moved to a file in
752 <file>/etc/default/
</file>
755 <item>Files in
<file>/usr/share/doc
</file> must not be referenced by any
756 program. If such files are needed, they must be placed in
757 <file>/usr/share/
<package
>/
</file>, and symbolic links
758 created as required in
<file>/usr/share/doc/
<package
>/
</file>
761 <item>Much of the packaging manual has now been imported into the
766 <sect> Version
3.2.1.0
772 <item>A package of priority standard or higher may provide two
773 binaries, one compiled with support for the X Window System,
774 and the other without
778 <sect> Version
3.2.0.0
784 <item>By default executables should not be built with the debugging
785 option -g. Instead, it is recommended to support building the
786 package with debugging information optionally. Details in
789 <item>Policy for packages where the upstream uses HTML changelog
790 files has been expanded. In short, a plain text changelog file
791 should always be generated for the upstream changes
794 <item>Please note that the new release of the X window system (
3.2)
795 shall probably need sweeping changes in policy
798 <item>Policy for packages providing the following X-based features
802 <item>X server (virtual package xserver)
</item>
804 <item>X terminal emulator (virtual package x-terminal-emulator)
</item>
806 <item>X window manager (virtual package x-window-manager, and
807 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager
</file> alternative, with priority
808 calculation guidelines)
811 <item>X fonts (this section has been written from scratch)
</item>
813 <item>X application defaults
</item>
817 <item>Policy for packages using the X Window System and FHS issues
821 <item>No package may contain or make hard links to conffiles
</item>
823 <item>Noted that newer dpkg versions do not require extreme care in
824 always creating the shared lib before the symlink, so the unpack
829 <sect> Version
3.1.1.0
831 <p> Released Nov
1999.
835 <item>Correction to semantics of architecture lists in Build-Depends
836 etc. Should not affect many packages
840 <sect> Version
3.1.0.0
842 <p> Released Oct
1999.
846 <item><file>/usr/doc/
<package
></file> has to be a symlink pointing to
847 <file>/usr/share/doc/
<package
></file>, to be maintained by postinst
851 <item>Introduced source dependencies (Build-Depends, etc.)
</item>
853 <item><file>/etc/rc.boot
</file> has been deprecated in favour of
854 <file>/etc/rcS.d
</file>. (Packages should not be touching this directory,
855 but should use update-rc.d instead)
858 <item>update-rc.d is now the
<em>only
</em> allowable way of accessing the
859 <file>/etc/rc?.d/[SK]??*
</file> links. Any scripts which manipulate them
860 directly must be changed to use update-rc.d instead. (This is
861 because the file-rc package handles this information in an
865 <item>Architecture-specific examples go in
866 <file>/usr/lib/
<package
>/examples
</file>
867 with symlinks from
<file>/usr/share/doc/
<package
>/examples/*
</file>
868 or from
<file>/usr/share/doc/
<package
>/examples
</file> itself
871 <item>Updated FHS to a
2.1 draft; this reverts
<file>/var/state
</file> to
872 <file>/var/lib
</file>
874 <tag>9.7; mime-policy
</tag>
875 <item>Added MIME sub-policy document
</item>
877 <item>VISUAL is allowed as a (higher priority) alternative to EDITOR
880 <item>Modified liblockfile description, which affects
881 mailbox-accessing programs. Please see the policy document for
885 <item>If a package provides a changelog in HTML format, a text-only
886 version should also be included. (Such a version may be prepared
887 using
<prgn>lynx -dump -nolist
</prgn>.)
890 <item>Description of how to handle version numbers based on dates
895 <sect> Version
3.0.1.0
897 <p> Released Jul
1999.
901 <item>Added the clarification that the .la files are essential for
902 the packages using libtool's libltdl library, in which case the .la
903 files must go in the run-time library package
907 <sect> Version
3.0.0.0
909 <p> Released Jun
1999.
913 <item>Debian formally moves from the FSSTND to the FHS. This is a
914 major change, and the implications of this move are probably
918 <item>Only
3 digits of the Standards version need be included in
919 control files, though all four digits are still permitted.
922 <item>The location of the GPL has changed to
923 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses
</file>. This may require changing the
924 copyright files to point to the correct location of the GPL and
928 <item>Packages that use libtool to create shared libraries must
929 include the .la files in the -dev packages
932 <item>Use logrotate to rotate log files
935 <item>section
5.8 has been rewritten (Programs for the X Window
938 <tag>9.6; menu-policy
</tag>
939 <item>There is now an associated menu policy, in a separate document,
940 that carries the full weight of Debian policy
943 <item>Programs which need to modify the files
<file>/var/run/utmp
</file>,
944 <file>/var/log/wtmp
</file> and
<file>/var/log/lastlog
</file> must be
945 installed setgid utmp
949 Please note that section numbers below this point may not be up to date
952 <sect> Version
2.5.0.0
954 <p> Released Oct
1998.
958 <item>Rearranged the manual to create a new Section
4, Files
960 <item>Section
3.3 (
"Files") was moved to Section
4. The Sections
961 that were Section
4 and Section
5 were moved down to become
962 Section
5 and Section
6.
964 <item>What was Section
5.5 (
"Log files") is now a subsection of the
965 new Section
4 (
"Files"), becoming section
4.8, placed after
966 "Configuration files", moving the Section
4.8 (
"Permissions
967 and owners") to Section
4.9. All subsections of the old
968 Section
5 after
5.5 were moved down to fill in the number
972 <item>Modified the section about changelog files to accommodate
973 upstream changelogs which were formatted as HTML. These
974 upstream changelog files should now be accessible as
975 <file>/usr/doc/package/changelog.html.gz
</file>
977 <item>Symlinks are permissible to link the real, or upstream,
978 changelog name to the Debian mandated name.
980 <item>Clarified that HTML documentation should be present in some
981 package, though not necessarily the main binary package.
983 <item>Corrected all references to the location of the copyright
984 files. The correct location is
<file>/usr/doc/package/copyright
</file>
986 <item>Ratified the architecture specification strings to cater to the
991 <sect> Version
2.4.1.0
993 <p> Released Apr
1998.
995 <sect1> Policy Manual:
997 <tag>Updated section
3.3.5 Symbolic links:
</tag>
998 <item>symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be relative,
999 symbolic links between toplevel directories should be absolute
1000 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#
6, topic
2)
1003 <tag>Updated section
4.9 Games:
</tag>
1004 <item>manpages for games should be installed in
<file>/usr/man/man6
</file>
1005 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue#
6, topic
3)
1009 <sect1> Packaging Manual:
1011 <item>Updated prefix of chapter
12, Shared Libraries:
1012 ldconfig must be called in the postinst script if the package
1013 installs shared libraries
1014 (cf., Policy Weekly Issue #
6, fixes:bug#
20515)
1018 <sect> Version
2.4.0.0
1020 <p> Released Jan
1998
1023 <tag>Updated section
3.3.4 Scripts:
</tag>
1025 <item>/bin/sh may be any POSIX compatible shell
1026 <item>scripts including bashisms have to specify
<file>/bin/bash
</file>
1028 <item>scripts which create files in world-writable directories
1029 (e.g., in
<file>/tmp
</file>) should use tempfile or mktemp for creating
1033 <tag>Updated section
3.3.5 Symbolic Links:
</tag>
1034 <item>symbolic links referencing compressed files must have the same
1035 file extension as the referenced file
1038 <tag>Updated section
3.3.6 Device files:
</tag>
1039 <item><file>/dev/tty*
</file> serial devices should be used instead of
1040 <file>/dev/cu*
</file>
1043 <tag>Updated section
3.4.2 Writing the scripts in
<file>/etc/init.d
</file>:
1045 <item>all
<file>/etc/init.d
</file> scripts have to provide the following
1046 options: start, stop, restart, force-reload
1047 <item>the reload option is optional and must never stop and restart
1051 <tag>Updated section
3.5 Cron jobs:
1052 <item>cron jobs that need to be executed more often than daily should
1053 be installed into
<file>/etc/cron.d
</file>
1056 <tag>Updated section
3.7 Menus:
1057 <item>removed section about how to register HTML docs to `menu'
1058 (the corresponding section in
4.4, Web servers and applications,
1059 has been removed in policy
2.2.0.0 already, so this one was
1063 <tag>New section
3.8 Keyboard configuration:
1064 <item>details about how the backspace and delete keys should be
1068 <tag>New section
3.9 Environment variables:
1069 <item>no program must depend on environment variables to get a
1070 reasonable default configuration
1073 <tag>New section
4.6 News system configuration:
1074 <item><file>/etc/news/organization
</file> and
<file>/etc/news/server
</file>
1075 should be supported by all news servers and clients
1078 <tag>Updated section
4.7 Programs for the X Window System:
1080 <item>programs requiring a non-free Motif library should be provided
1081 as foo-smotif and foo-dmotif package
1083 <item>if lesstif works reliably for such program, it should be linked
1084 against lesstif and not against a non-free Motif library
1088 <tag>Updated section
4.9 Games:
1089 <item>games for X Windows have to be installed in
<file>/usr/games
</file>,
1094 <sect> Version
2.3.0.1,
2.3.0.0
1096 <p> Released Sep
1997.
1099 <item>new section `
4.2 Daemons' including rules for
1100 <file>/etc/services
</file>,
<file>/etc/protocols
</file>,
1101 <file>/etc/rpc
</file>, and
<file>/etc/inetd.conf
</file>
1104 <item>updated section about `Configuration files':
1105 packages may not touch other packages' configuration files
1108 <item>MUAs and MTAs have to use liblockfile
</item>
1111 <sect> Version
2.2.0.0
1113 <p> Released July
1997.
1116 <item>added section
4.1 `Architecture specification strings':
1119 where
<arch
> is one of the following:
1120 i386, alpha, arm, m68k, powerpc, sparc.
1123 <item>detailed rules for
<file>/usr/local
</file></item>
1125 <item>user ID's
</item>
1127 <item>editor/pager policy
</item>
1129 <item>cron jobs
</item>
1131 <item>device files
</item>
1133 <item>don't install shared libraries as executable
</item>
1135 <item>app-defaults files may not be conffiles
</item>
1138 <sect> Version
2.1.3.2,
2.1.3.1,
2.1.3.0
1140 <p> Released Mar
1997.
1143 <item>two programs with different functionality must not have the
1146 <item>"Webstandard 3.0"</item>
1148 <item>"Standard for Console Messages"</item>
1150 <item>Libraries should be compiled with `-D_REENTRANT'
</item>
1152 <item>Libraries should be stripped with
<prgn>strip --strip-unneeded
</prgn>
1156 <sect> Version
2.1.2.2,
2.1.2.1,
2.1.2.0
1158 <p> Released Nov
1996.
1161 <item>Some changes WRT shared libraries
1164 <sect> Version
2.1.1.0
1166 <p> Released Sep
1996.
1169 <item>No hard links in source packages
</item>
1171 <item>Do not use
<prgn>dpkg-divert
</prgn> or
<prgn>update-alternatives
</prgn>
1172 without consultation
</item>
1174 <item>Shared libraries must be installed stripped
</item>
1177 <sect> Version
2.1.0.0
1179 <p> Released Aug
1996.
1182 <item>Upstream changelog must be installed too
</item>