Here’s a summary of the bugs against the Debian Policy Manual. Please consider getting involved, whether or not you’re an existing contributor.
Consensus has been reached and help is needed to write a patch
#172436 BROWSER and sensible-browser standardization
#273093 document interactions of multiple clashing package diversions
#299007 Transitioning perms of /usr/local
#314808 Web applications should use /usr/share/package, not /usr/share/doc/…
#425523 Describe error unwind when unpacking a package fails
#452393 Clarify difference between required and important priorities
#476810 Please clarify 12.5, “Copyright information”
#484673 file permissions for files potentially including credential informa…
#491318 init scripts “should” support start/stop/restart/force-reload - why…
#556015 Clarify requirements for linked doc directories
#568313 Suggestion: forbid the use of dpkg-statoverride when uid and gid ar…
#578597 Recommend usage of dpkg-buildflags to initialize CFLAGS and al.
#582109 document triggers where appropriate
#587991 perl-policy: /etc/perl missing from Module Path
#592610 Clarify when Conflicts + Replaces et al are appropriate
#613046 please update example in 4.9.1 (debian/rules and DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)
#614807 Please document autobuilder-imposed build-dependency alternative re…
#628515 recommending verbose build logs
#664257 document Architecture name definitions
#682347 mark ‘editor’ virtual package name as obsolete
#685506 copyright-format: new Files-Excluded field
#685746 debian-policy Consider clarifying the use of recommends
#688251 Built-Using description too aggressive
#749826 [multiarch] please document the use of Multi-Arch field in debian/c…
#757760 please document build profiles
#759316 Document the use of /etc/default for cron jobs
#761219 document versioned Provides
#767839 Linking documentation of arch:any package to arch:all
#770440 policy should mention systemd timers
#773557 Avoid unsafe RPATH/RUNPATH
#780725 PATH used for building is not specified
#793499 The Installed-Size algorithm is out-of-date
#810381 Update wording of 5.6.26 VCS-* fields to recommend encryption
#823256 Update maintscript arguments with dpkg >= 1.18.5
#833401 virtual packages: dbus-session-bus, dbus-default-session-bus
#835451 Building as root should be discouraged
#838777 Policy 11.8.4 for x-window-manager needs update for freedesktop menus
#845715 Please document that packages are not allowed to write outside thei…
#853779 Clarify requirements about update-rc.d and invoke-rc.d usage in mai…
#874019 Note that the ’-e’ argument to x-terminal-emulator works like ’–’
#874206 allow a trailing comma in package relationship fields
Wording proposed, awaiting review from anyone and/or seconds by DDs
#515856 remove get-orig-source
#542288 Versions for native packages, NMU’s, and binary only uploads
#582109 document triggers where appropriate
#610083 Remove requirement to document upstream source location in debian/c…
#645696 [copyright-format] clearer definitions and more consistent License:…
#649530 [copyright-format] clearer definitions and more consistent License:…
#662998 stripping static libraries
#682347 mark ‘editor’ virtual package name as obsolete
#683222 say explicitly that debian/changelog is required in source packages
#688251 Built-Using description too aggressive
#737796 copyright-format: support Files: paragraph with both abbreviated na…
#756835 Extension of the syntax of the Packages-List field.
#786470 [copyright-format] Add an optional “License-Grant” field
#810381 Update wording of 5.6.26 VCS-* fields to recommend encryption
#835451 Building as root should be discouraged
#845255 Include best practices for packaging database applications
#850729 Documenting special version number suffixes
#874090 Clarify wording of some passages
#874095 copyright-format: Use the “synopsis” term established in the de…
Merged for the next release
#661928 recipe for determining shlib package name
#679751 please clarify package account and home directory location in policy
#683222 say explicitly that debian/changelog is required in source packages
#870915 [5.6.30] Testsuite: There are much more defined values
#872893 Chapters, sections, appendices and numbering
#872895 Include multi-page HTML in package
#872896 An html.tar.gz has leaked into the .deb?
#872900 Very generic info file name
#872950 Too much indirection in info file menus
#873819 upgrading-checklist.txt: typo pgpsignurlmangle in section 4.11 of V…
#874411 missing line breaks in summary of ways maintainers scripts are call…
I just released Debian Policy version 4.1.1.0.
There are only two normative changes, and neither is very important. The main thing is that this upload fixes a lot of packaging bugs that were found since we converted to build with Sphinx.
There are still some issues remaining; I hope to submit some patches to the www-team’s scripts to fix those.