10.24. Version 3.9.0

Released June, 2010.

4.4, 5.6.15

The required format for the date in a changelog entry and in the Date control field is now precisely specified.

5.1

A control paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a particular field name.

5.4, 5.5, 5.6.24

The Checksums-Sha1 and Checksums-Sha256 fields in *.dsc and *.changes files are now documented and recommended.

5.5, 5.6.16

The Format field of .changes files is now 1.8. The Format field syntax for source package .dsc files allows a subtype in parentheses, and it is used for a different purpose than the Format field for .changes files.

5.6.2

The syntax of the Maintainer field is now must rather than should.

5.6.3

The comma separating entries in Uploaders is now must rather than should.

5.6.8, 7.1, 11.1.1

Architecture wildcards may be used in addition to specific architectures in debian/control and *.dsc Architecture fields, and in architecture restrictions in build relationships.

6.3

Maintainer scripts are no longer guaranteed to run with a controlling terminal and must be able to fall back to noninteractive behavior (debconf handles this). Maintainer scripts may abort if there is no controlling terminal and no reasonable default for a high-priority question, but should avoid this if possible.

7.3, 7.6.1

Breaks should be used with Replaces for moving files between packages.

7.4

Breaks should normally be used instead of Conflicts for transient issues and moving files between packages. New documentation of when each should be used.

7.5

Use Conflicts with Provides if only one provider of a virtual facility can be installed at a time.

8.4

All shared library development files are no longer required to be in the -dev package, only be available when the -dev package is installed. This allows the -dev package to be split as long as it depends on the additional packages.

9.2.2

The UID range of user accounts is extended to 1000-59999.

9.3.2, 10.4

init.d scripts are a possible exception from the normal requirement to use set -e in each shell script.

12.5

The UCB BSD license was removed from the list of licenses that should be referenced from /usr/share/common-licenses/BSD. It should instead be included directly in debian/copyright, although it will still be in common-licenses for the time being.

debconf

SETTITLE is now documented (it has been supported for some time). SETTITLE is like TITLE but takes a template instead of a string to allow translation.

perl

perl-base now provides perlapi-abiname instead of a package based solely on the Perl version. Perl packages must now depend on perlapi-$Config{debian_abi}, falling back on $Config{version} if $Config{debian_abi} is not set.

perl

Packages using Makefile.PL should use DESTDIR rather than PREFIX to install into the package staging area. PREFIX only worked due to a Debian-local patch.