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22.21 Version 3.9.0
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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.