Package: debian-policy Version: 3.9.2.0 Severity: minor Policy 9.1.1 states: "The location of all installed files and directories must comply with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) [...]".
IMHO this should not only cover "installed files" (which I interpret as "files being shipped in packages") but also files created by programs or scripts (including maintainer scripts) shipped in Debian packages, e.g. to cover cases where a program creates a cache file under /usr/ like e.g. http://bugs.debian.org/638030 I therefore suggest to rephrase this sentence as follows: "The location of all installed files and directories, and all files and directories generated or created by installed programs or scripts (including maintainer scripts) must comply with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) [...]". Besides the location of installed and generated files, their behaviour should also comply to the FHS, i.e., programs like apt must not fail if /var/cache/* is removed. On the other hand, local debian packages for propritary software generated by scripts shipped in a Debian package do not need to comply to the FHS. It is not clear where to draw the line between these extremes, for example, would a script that installs a software to a non-standard location (e.g., because upstream has weird opinions about such things) after asking the user to confirm this be allowed in Debian? Depending on a consensus to the former question, the above sentence could be adapted or extended. Feel free to clone this bug if you want to handle the latter issue separately. -- System Information: Debian Release: wheezy/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (600, 'testing'), (400, 'stable'), (110, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-xen-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core) Locale: LANG=en_US.ISO-8859-15, LC_CTYPE=en_US.ISO-8859-15 (charmap=ISO-8859-15) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash debian-policy depends on no packages. debian-policy recommends no packages. Versions of packages debian-policy suggests: pn doc-base <none> (no description available) -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20110816213306.gc29...@sym.noone.org
