DEBIAN POLICY WEEKLY, #6 (April 11, 1998)
DEBIAN POLICY WEEKLY, #6 (April 11, 1998)
The following message is a list of topics related to the Debian Policy which
are currently under discussion or which will be discussed in the near
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Policy changes that need to be approved
The following policy changes have been developed during recent discussion on
the mailing lists. If there are no objections, these changes will become
`official' soon.
1. ldconfig calls in postinst scripts
2. Absolute and relative symbolic links
3. Manual pages for X11 games
Policy topics about which I need additional input
The following topics have been discussed on the mailing lists or in private
mail. I need more information and personal opinions about these topics to
prepare a policy change:
[none]
Policy topics which need to be discussed
The following ideas have been mentioned in recent discussions. Any input is
appreciated.
[none]
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Topic 1: ldconfig calls in postinst scripts
STATE: APPROVAL
REF: cf. bug #20515
Current policy states that in general, calling `ldconfig' from the postinst
script is not necessary. There have been a few discussions on this topic
already, with the result that current policy is wrong: it *is* necessary to
run `ldconfig' in postinst scripts if the package installs a shared library
(into a directory which is listed in /etc/ld.so.conf).
Therefore, I suggest to change the Packaging Manual (last paragraph of the
preface of chapter 12) to state the following:
Any package installing shared libraries in a directory that's
listed in /etc/ld.so.conf must call `ldconfig' in its postinst
script if and only if the first argument is `configure'.
It is especially important not to call ldconfig in the postrm or
preinst scripts in the case where the package is being upgraded
(see Details of unpack phase of installation or upgrade, section
6.3), as ldconfig will see the temporary names that dpkg uses for
the files while it is installing them and will make the shared
library links point to them, just before dpkg continues the
installation and removes the links!
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Topic 2: Absolute and relative symbolic links
STATE: APPROVAL
Current policy reads (section 3.3.5):
``Most symbolic links should be relative, not absolute.
[...]
In particular, symbolic links from one part of /usr to another
should be relative.
In certain cases, however, relative links may cause more
problems. For example, links into /etc and /var should be
absolute.''
If some discussion on debian-policy, we had a consensus about changing this
into something like the following text. If there are no objections, I'll do
so with the next release of the Policy Manual.
In general, symbolic links within a toplevel directory should be
relative, and symbolic links pointing from one toplevel directory
into another should be absolute. (A toplevel directory is a
sub-directory of the root directory `/'.)
In addition, symbolic links should be specified as short as
possible, i.e., link targets like `foo/../bar' are depreciated.
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Topic 3: Manual pages for X11 games
STATE: APPROVAL
Current policy states that X11 games have to be installed into /usr/games,
instead of /usr/X11R6/bin. It is not yet specified, where manual pages of
such games should be installed to. I suggest to put such manual pages into
`/usr/man/man6'.
The two reasons for this are, that a) it is logical to put manual pages into
/usr/X11R6/man if and only if the documented files are installed below
/usr/X11R6, too, and b) the `man' command generates the MANPATH settings
dynamically from the PATH, and maps '/usr/games' to '/usr/man'.
Unless there are objections, I'll include a statement in the policy manual
that manual pages for X11 games should be installed into `/usr/man/man6'.
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-- Christian Schwarz
schwarz@monet.m.isar.de, schwarz@schwarz-online.com
schwarz@debian.org, schwarz@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
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