Debian Policy 4.5.0.0 released

To: debian-devel-announce@lists.debian.org

Subject: Debian Policy 4.5.0.0 released

From: Sean Whitton <spwhitton@spwhitton.name>

Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2020 12:41:48 -0700

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Hello everyone, I just pushed version 4.5.0.0 of the Debian Policy Manual and related documents to sid. Below you will find the significant normative changes from the previously announced release of Policy (4.4.1). Policy "encouragement" should be understood as normatively weaker than Policy recommendations ("should"). A future release of Policy will formalise Policy's use of 'encouraged'. I did not want to delay releasing Policy's incorporation of the results of the GR on that change. =*=*=*= 9.2.1 When maintainers choose a new hardcoded or dynamically generated username for packages to use, they should start this username with an underscore. 9.3.1 Packages that include system services should include ``systemd`` service units to start or stop those services. Including an init script is encouraged if there is no systemd unit, and optional if there is (previously, it was recommended). In the common case that a package includes a single system service, the service unit should have the same name as the package plus the ".service" extension. If an init script is included, it should have the same name as the systemd unit. 9.3.2 It is encouraged for init scripts to support the ``status`` argument (previously, it was recommended). 9.3.3 Use of update-rc.d is required if the package includes an init script (previously, Policy said in one place that it was required, and in another said that it was recommended). -- Sean Whitton