Chapter 11 - Customized Programs¶

11.1 Architecture specification strings¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Chapter 11)

11.2 Daemons¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.2)

11.3 Using pseudo-ttys and modifying wtmp, utmp and lastlog¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.3)

11.4 Editors and pagers¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.4)

11.5 Web servers and applications¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.5)

11.6 Mail transport, delivery and user agents¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.6)

11.7 News system configuration¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.7)

11.8 Programs for the X Window System¶

Packages that provide a window manager should declare in their control data that they provide the virtual package x-window-manager. They should also register themselves as an alternative for /usr/bin/x-window-manager, with a priority calculated as follows:

Start with a priority of 20.
If the window manager supports the Debian menu system, add 20 points if this support is available in the package’s default configuration (i.e., no configuration files belonging to the system or user have to be edited to activate the feature); if configuration files must be modified, add only 10 points.
If the window manager complies with The Window Manager Specification Project, written by the Free Desktop Group, add 40 points.
If the window manager permits the X session to be restarted using a different window manager (without killing the X server) in its default configuration, add 10 points; otherwise add none.

11.8.5 Packages providing fonts¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.8.5)

11.8.6 Application default files¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.8.6)

11.8.7 Installation directory issues¶

Editor’s note: This section is outdated and is different to the Debian policy. Review is suggested.

(Modifies: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.8.7)

Packages using the X Window System should not be configured to install files under the /usr/X11R6/ directory. The /usr/X11R6/ directory hierarchy should be regarded as obsolete.

Programs that use GNU autoconf and automake are usually easily configured at compile time to use /usr/ instead of /usr/X11R6/, and this should be done whenever possible. Configuration files for window managers and display managers should be placed in a subdirectory of /etc/X11/ corresponding to the package name due to these programs’ tight integration with the mechanisms of the X Window System. Application-level programs should use the /etc/ directory unless otherwise mandated by policy.

The installation of files into subdirectories of /usr/X11R6/include/X11/ and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/ is now prohibited; package maintainers should determine if subdirectories of /usr/lib/ and /usr/share/ can be used instead.

Packages should install any relevant files into the directories /usr/include/X11/ and /usr/lib/X11/, but if they do so, they must pre-depend on x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) [1]

11.8.8 The OSF/Motif and OpenMotif libraries¶

Editor’s note: This section is missing from the Debian policy. Review is suggested.

Programs that require the non-DFSG-compliant OSF/Motif or OpenMotif libraries [2] should be compiled against and tested with LessTif (a free re-implementation of Motif) instead. If the maintainer judges that the program or programs do not work sufficiently well with LessTif to be distributed and supported, but do so when compiled against Motif, then two versions of the package should be created; one linked statically against Motif and with -smotif appended to the package name, and one linked dynamically against Motif and with -dmotif appended to the package name.

Both Motif-linked versions are dependent upon non-DFSG-compliant software and thus cannot be uploaded to the main distribution; if the software is itself DFSG-compliant it may be uploaded to the contrib distribution. While known existing versions of Motif permit unlimited redistribution of binaries linked against the library (whether statically or dynamically), it is the package maintainer’s responsibility to determine whether this is permitted by the license of the copy of Motif in their possession.

11.8.9 Icon caching¶

Ubuntu: Packages that provide icons in a subdirectory of /usr/share/icons must invoke update-icon-caches on each directory into which they installed icons. This invocation must occur in both the postinst (for all arguments) and postrm (for all arguments) scripts [3]. Doing this allows GTK+ to make use of the icon cache for efficiency gains, while ensuring that the cache does not get out of date and cause problems for some applications.

If update-icon-caches is not installed, this invocation may safely be skipped. No additional dependency is necessary.

11.9 Perl programs and modules¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.9)

11.10 Emacs lisp programs¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.10)

11.11 Games¶

(Shared with Debian, see: Debian Policy Manual, Section 11.11)

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