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Debian Policy Manual 2.2.0.0 released



Hi folks!

I have just released a new version of the Debian Policy Manual. The new
manual is available as debian package (debian-policy) currently sitting in
Incoming, via our www server (it will show up on www.debian.org soon), and
via the home page at
	http://fatman.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de/~schwarz/debian-policy/

A lot of things have changed since version 2.1.3.3. Since the structure of
the manual has been changed completely, a "diff -u" can't help. I tried to
summarize all changes best I can. Here is a list. Just ask if you need
more details:

  * Changes in the Debian Policy Manual:
    - completely reworked structure 
    - moved sections about new maintainers, upload procedure, interim
      releases, and mailing lists into the Developers Reference Manual 
    - moved a few (small) sections into the Debian Packaging Manual
    - removed all those ugly footnotes 
    - new example for "reload" in section about console messages 
    - mention Artistic License (fixes #9793) 
    - don't mention dpkg's version number in Policy Manual 
    - rewrote abstract and section introductions 
    - mention "orphaned packages" 
    - maintainer is responsible for a package license to comply with the
      distributions' policy 
    - putting a package into base section requires discussion on
debian-devel 
    - rewrote sections about "pre-depends", "essential" and, "base"
packages 
    - added note that non-us' maintainers have to live outside the US 
    - added crypto-hook statement (fixes #7257) 
    - added section about arch spec strings 
    - rewrote section about "Site specific programs" (/usr/local) 
    - included Ian's suggestions for user IDs 
    - added section about "menus" 
    - removed section about "web menus" since this will be superceded with
      the new documentation policy soon 
    - incorporated "Debian Free Software Guidelines" (fixes #9024) 
    - removed note that linking with -g produces large a.out binary (fixes
      #11008)  
    - added section about editors and pagers 
    - added note about Package priorities and dependencies 
    - added section about cron jobs (fixes #8814) 
    - added section about device files 
    - don't install shared libraries as executable (fixes #7129) 
    - app-defaults files may not be conffiles (cf. #2717) 
    - lots of minor changes not worth mentioning here (typos, fomulations,
      etc.)
  * Changes in the authoritative list of virtual package names
    - Removed obsolete virtual packages: xR6shlib, xlibraries,
      compress, emacs, sgmls, inews, gs_x, gs_svga, gs_both, xpmR6
    - Added new section about obsolete names
  * Added Helmut Geyer's paper about libc5-libc6 migration

And here is a list of "ACTION ITEMS". Note, that this list is probably far
from being complete.

  ACTION ITEMS

  ! - The install-info script has to be changed to improve the layout of
      the dir file. 
  ! - unzip has to be moved to non-free (cf. #9024) 
    - packages with a Debian specific license have to be moved into
      non-free 
  ! - gcc has to rename its directory to i386-linux 
    - everyone has to use the menu system 
  ! - the following packages may not tag their app-defaults files as
      conffiles: freeciv, vrweb, xearth, swisswatch, xcal, xfaces, knews,
      xbmbrowser, xinvaders, xtron 

I'll submit maint-only bug reports where appropriate (items marked with
`!').

Note, that a few important issues have _not_ been included yet since we
need more time to work at the details. These are:

   - Documentation Policy
   - Mail folder locking
   - new control fields (upstream URL, etc.)
   - a few other things...


Thanks,

Chris

--          _,,     Christian Schwarz
           / o \__   schwarz@monet.m.isar.de, schwarz@schwarz-online.com,
           !   ___;   schwarz@debian.org, schwarz@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
           \  /        
  \\\______/  !        PGP-fp: 8F 61 EB 6D CF 23 CA D7  34 05 14 5C C8 DC 22 BA
   \          /         http://fatman.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de/~schwarz/
-.-.,---,-,-..---,-,-.,----.-.-
  "DIE ENTE BLEIBT DRAUSSEN!"


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