Differences between revisions 1 and 2
Revision 1 as of 2004-01-11 21:34:00
Size: 903
Editor: anonymous
Comment:
Revision 2 as of 2007-04-03 18:14:35
Size: 1007
Editor: MarkHobley
Comment: Development
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 9: Line 9:

=== Development ===

['PoliciesWhackyIdeas'] This is an ideas pool for future new policies

Although it sounds a lot like bureaucracy, it is the ?DebianPolicyManual that makes Debian the best Linux distribution. It describes what packages should contain, how they should be configured, and generally how packages fit together to create a Debian system.

There are policies which govern every package. The most important one is that Debian needs to comply with the FilesystemHierarchyStandard - this makes sure you can always find files where you expect them. There are specific policies which govern which interfaces certain packages follow. For example, every program that sends e-mail needs to Provide: mail-transfer-agent. This means that other programs that need to send e-mail just depend: mail-transfer-agent, and are able to use /usr/sbin/sendmail.

The coolest bit of policy in Debian is the ?MenuPolicy, which ?MandrakeSoft adopted also.

Development

['?PoliciesWhackyIdeas'] This is an ideas pool for future new policies