Hello everyone,
I've just uploaded release 3.7.3.0 of Debian Policy. Since this is my
first Policy upload, my apologies in advance for any problems, bugs, or
mistakes.
Since this is the first Policy release in a while, many of the changes are
catching up to work that's already been done in the archive (~ in version
numbers, for example). There are many Policy change proposals, including
some obvious and uncontroversial ones, that didn't make it into this
release. That doesn't mean they've been rejected, only that a Policy
release was long-overdue and it was better to set a deadline and upload
what was finished by that deadline than postpone it further.
I expect that 3.7.4.0 will not be far in the future.
Debian package maintainers, please review your packages against the new
version of Policy, make any necessary changes, and upload
Standards-Version accordingly. (Only changing Standards-Version isn't
usually worth an upload by itself if no changes are necessary.) Here is
the excerpt from /usr/share/doc/debian-policy/upgrading-checklist.txt.gz
for this release:
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]
Please report any problems as bugs against the debian-policy package.
Policy changes are discussed on debian-policy@lists.debian.org and all are
invited to join and contribute.
A new lintian version that recognizes the new Policy version will be
uploaded within a few days.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Attachment:
pgpRROJ05SVVQ.pgp
Description: PGP signature