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 future. This summary is sent to the debian-policy mailing list periodically by the Debian Policy Manager.
A copy of this mail is sent to debian-devel to keep other developers up-to-date. Please send any replies to the debian-policy mailing list. Please do not quote the whole mail if you are only referring to a single section to save bandwidth. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Policy Manual on the Web This message can also be read online at http://schwarz.developer.debian.org/policy/weekly/ The Home Page of the Debian Policy Manual is located at http://schwarz.developer.debian.org/policy/ This page contains links to the current documents, information about the current development version (2.4.1.0 DRAFT), and links to related documents. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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'. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Christian Schwarz [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP-fp: 8F 61 EB 6D CF 23 CA D7 34 05 14 5C C8 DC 22 BA CS Software goes online! Visit our new home page at http://www.schwarz-online.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
