+Maintainer scripts include the files
+Maintainer scripts must be idempotent. That means that you need to
+make sure nothing bad will happen if the script is called twice where
+it would usually be called once.
+
+Standard input and output may be redirected (e.g. into pipes) for
+logging purposes, so don't rely on them being a tty.
+
+All prompting or interactive configuration should be kept to a
+minimum. When it is necessary, you should use the
+
+Keep the maintainer scripts as simple as possible. We suggest you use
+pure POSIX shell scripts. Remember, if you do need any bash features,
+the maintainer script must have a bash sh-bang line. POSIX shell or
+Bash are preferred to Perl, since they enable
+
+If you change your maintainer scripts, be sure to test package
+removal, double installation, and purging. Be sure that a purged
+package is completely gone, that is, it must remove any files created,
+directly or indirectly, in any maintainer script.
+
+If you need to check for the existence of a command, you should use
+something like
+
+While
However, if the size of the data is considerable, consider splitting
-it out into a separate, architecture-independent package.
-("_all.deb"). By doing this, you avoid needless duplication of the
-same data into eleven or more .debs per each architecture. While this
+it out into a separate, architecture-independent package ("_all.deb").
+By doing this, you avoid needless duplication of the same data into
+eleven or more .debs, one per each architecture. While this
adds some extra overhead into the
We encourage you to file bugs as you find them in Debian packages. In
fact, Debian developers are often the first line testers. Finding and
-reporting bugs in other developer's packages improves the quality of
+reporting bugs in other developers' packages improves the quality of
Debian.
+Read the
Try to submit the bug from a normal user account at which you are
-likely to receive mail. Do not submit bugs as root.
+likely to receive mail, so that people can reach you if they need
+further information about the bug. Do not submit bugs as root.
+
+You can use a tool like
+Make sure the bug is not already filed against a package.
+Each package has a bug list easily reachable at
+http://&bugs-host;/packagename
+Utilities like
+Try to direct your bugs to the proper location. When for example
+your bug is about a package that overwrites files from another package,
+check the bug lists for both of those packages in order to
+avoid filing duplicate bug reports.
-Make sure the bug is not already filed against a package. Try to do a
-good job reporting a bug and redirecting it to the proper location.
For extra credit, you can go through other packages, merging bugs
-which are reported more than once, or setting bug severities to
-`fixed' when they have already been fixed. Note that when you are
+which are reported more than once, or tagging bugs `fixed'
+when they have already been fixed. Note that when you are
neither the bug submitter nor the package maintainer, you should
not actually close the bug (unless you secure permission from the
maintainer).
@@ -3603,7 +3808,7 @@ From time to time you may want to check what has been going on
with the bug reports that you submitted. Take this opportunity to
close those that you can't reproduce anymore. To find
out all the bugs you submitted, you just have to visit
-http://&bugs-host;/from:<your-email-addr>.
+http://&bugs-host;/from:<your-email-addr>.
@@ -4311,6 +4516,9 @@ it.