Uploading to stable means that the package will be placed into the
-
Extra care should be taken when uploading to stable. Basically, a @@ -1500,13 +1535,29 @@ packages (by messing with Provides or shlibs files), possibly making those other packages uninstallable, is strongly discouraged.
The Release Team (which can be reached at &email-debian-release;) will
-regularly evaluate the uploads in proposed-updates and decide if
+regularly evaluate the uploads in stable-proposed-updates and decide if
your package can be included in stable. Please be clear (and
verbose, if necessary) in your changelog entries for uploads to
stable, because otherwise the package won't be considered for
inclusion.
-
+
+The testing distribution is fed with packages from unstable according to the rules
+explained in . However, the release manager may stop the testing
+scripts when he wants to freeze the distribution. In that case, you may want to
+upload to testing-proposed-udaptes to provide fixed packages during the freeze.
+
+Keep in mind that packages uploaded there are not automatically processed, they
+have to go through the hands of the release manager. So you'd better have a good
+reason to upload there. In order to know what a good reason is in the
+release manager's eyes, you should read the instructions that he regularly
+gives on &email-debian-devel-announce;.
+
+You should not upload to testing-proposed-updates when you can update your
+packages through unstable. If you can't (for example because you have a
+newer development version in unstable), you may use it but it is recommended to ask
+the authorization of the release manager before.
As discussed above, export controlled software should not be uploaded
to ftp-master. Instead, upload the package to
@@ -1794,13 +1845,8 @@ distribution, i.e., stable, unstable, or experimental. Porters have
slightly different rules than non-porters, due to their unique
circumstances (see ).
-When a security bug is detected, a fixed package should be uploaded
-as soon as possible. In this case, the Debian security officers get in
-contact with the package maintainer to make sure a fixed package is
-uploaded within a reasonable time (less than 48 hours). If the package
-maintainer cannot provide a fixed package fast enough or if he/she
-cannot be reached in time, a security officer may upload a fixed
-package (i.e., do a source NMU).
+When a security bug is detected, the security team may do an NMU.
+Please refer to for more information.
During the release cycle (see ), NMUs which fix
serious or higher severity bugs are encouraged and accepted. Even
@@ -1809,14 +1855,14 @@ maintainer of the package; they might be just about to upload a fix
for the problem. As with any source NMU, the guidelines found in need to be followed.
-Bug fixes to unstable by non-maintainers are also acceptable, but only
-as a last resort or with permission. The following protocol should
-be respected to do an NMU:
+Uploading bug fixes to unstable by non-maintainers should only be done
+by following this protocol:
+At times, the release manager or an organized group of developers can
+announce a certain period of time in which the NMU rules are relaxed.
+This usually involves shortening the period during which one is to wait
+before uploading the fixes, and shortening the DELAYED period. It is
+important to notice that even in these so-called "bug squashing party"
+times, the NMUer has to file bugs and contact the developer first,
+and act later.
@@ -1885,11 +1939,7 @@ absolutely necessary for someone other than the usual maintainer to
make a release based on a new upstream version then the person making
the release should start with the debian-revision value
`0.1'. The usual maintainer of a package should start their
-debian-revision numbering at `1'. Note that if you do
-this, you'll have to invoke
+At other times, you may make a mistake in constructing your package, and
+wish to replace it. The only way to do this is to increase the version
+number, and upload a new version. The old version will be expired in
+the usual manner. Note that this applies to each part of your package,
+including the sources: if you wish to replace the upstream source tarball
+of your package, you will need to upload it with a different version. An
+easy possibility is to replace
@@ -2487,9 +2548,8 @@ to let people know that the bug exists but that it won't be corrected.
If this situation is unacceptable, you (or the submitter) may want to
require a decision of the technical committee by reassigning the bug
to
+Due to their sensitive nature, security-related bugs must be handled
+carefully. The Debian Security Team exists to coordinate this
+activity, keeping track of outstanding security problems, helping
+maintainers with security problems or fix them themselves, sending
+security advisories, and maintaining security.debian.org.
+
+
+
+
+
+When you become aware of a security-related bug in a Debian package,
+whether or not you are the maintainer, collect pertinent information
+about the problem, and promptly contact the security team at
+&email-security-team;.
+Useful information includes, for example:
+
+
+Unlike most other activities within Debian, information about security
+issues must sometimes be kept private for a time. Whether this is the
+case depends on the nature of the problem and corresponding fix, and
+whether it is already a matter of public knowledge.
+
+There are a few ways a developer can learn of a security problem:
+
+
+ In all cases if the person who reports the problem asks to not
+ disclose the information that should be respected, with the obvious
+ exception of informing the security team (make sure you tell the
+ security team that the information can not be disclosed).
+
+
+Please note that if secrecy is needed you can also not upload a fix to
+unstable (or anywhere else), since the changelog and diff information
+for unstable is public.
+
+
+There are two reasons for releasing information even though secrecy is
+requested: the problem has been known for too long, or the information
+has become public.
+
+
+Security advisories are only issued for the current, released stable
+distribution, not for testing or unstable. When released, advisories
+are sent to the &email-debian-security-announce;
+mailing list and posted on
+One way that you can assist the security team in their duties is to
+provide fixed packages suitable for a security advisory for the stable
+Debian release.
+
+ When an update is made to the stable release, care must be taken to
+ avoid changing system behaviour or introducing new bugs. In order to
+ do this, make as few changes as possible to fix the bug. Users and
+ administrators rely on the exact behaviour of a release once it is
+ made, so any change we make can possibly break someone's system.
+ This is especially true of libraries: make sure you never change the
+ API or ABI, no matter how small the change.
+
+This means that moving to a new upstream version is not a good
+solution. Instead, the relevant changes should be backported to the
+version present in the current stable Debian release. Generally,
+upstream maintainers are willing to help if needed. If not, the
+Debian security team may be able to help.
+
+In some cases, it is not possible to backport a security fix, for
+example when large amounts of sourcecode need to be modified or
+rewritten. If this happens, it may be necessary to move to a new
+upstream version. However, you must always coordinate that with the
+security team beforehand.
+
+Related to this is another important guideline: always test your
+changes. If you have an exploit available, try it and see if it
+indeed succeeds on the unpatched package and fails on the fixed
+package. Test other, normal actions as well, as sometimes a security
+fix can break seemingly unrelated features in subtle ways.
+
+When packaging the fix, keep the following points in mind:
+
+
+DO NOT upload a package to the security upload queue without
+prior authorization from the security team. If the package does not
+exactly meet the team's requirements, it will cause many problems and
+delays in dealing with the unwanted upload.
+
+Once you have created and tested the new package, and it has been
+approved by the security team, it needs to be uploaded so that it can
+be installed in the archives. For security uploads, the place to
+upload to is
+ftp://security.debian.org/pub/SecurityUploadQueue/ .
+
+
+Once an upload to the security queue has been accepted, the package
+will automatically be rebuilt for all architectures and stored for
+verification by the security team.
+
+
+Uploads which are waiting for acceptance or verification are only
+accessible by the security team. This is necessary since there might
+be fixes for security problems that cannot be disclosed yet.
+
+
+If a member of the security team accepts a package, it will be
+installed on security.debian.org as well as the proper
+distribution-proposed-updates on ftp-master or in the non-US
+archive.
@@ -2712,6 +2975,13 @@ full example.
/etc/modutils/ for module configuration.
-->
+
+Some very good packaging practices for packages using autoconf and/or
+automake have been synthetized in &file-bpp-autotools;. You're strongly
+encouraged to read this file and to follow the given recommandations.
+
+
Libraries are always difficult to package for various reasons. The policy
@@ -2804,7 +3074,8 @@ that description, you should be careful to avoid English
mistakes. Ensure that you spell check it.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ In the first two cases, the information is public and it is important
+ to have a fix as soon as possible. In the last case, however, it
+ might not be public information. In that case there are a few
+ possible options for dealing with the problem:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+