[Guidelines Change] Changes to the Packaging Guidelines

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

As usual, the Fedora Packaging Committee has been busy improving the
Fedora Packaging Guidelines.

Specifically:

The Packaging Guidelines now explicitly permit desktop files to be
generated inside a spec file (previously, this was implicitly acceptable):
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#.desktop_file_creation

The Packaging Guidelines have a new section covering Explicit Requires.
They should be avoided in Fedora packages except when absolutely necessary.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Explicit_Requires

The Packaging Guidelines have a new section covering Symlinks. There are
two types of Symlinks, Absolute and Relative. Neither is required,
packagers should use their own best judgement when determining which to
use in their package.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Symlinks

The Packaging Guidelines have a new section covering the use of %global
over %define. Whenever possible, Fedora packages should use %global.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#.25global_preferred_over_.25define

The Packaging Guidelines have a new section covering the Use of Epochs.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Use_of_Epochs

The Packaging Guidelines have been updated to clarify the section on
Duplicate Files. A Fedora package must not list a file more than once in
the spec file's %files listings. If you think your package is a valid
exception to this, please bring it to the attention of the Packaging
Committee so they can improve on this Guideline.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Duplicate_Files

The SourceURL section of the Packaging Guidelines has a new subsection
on handling Troublesome URLs:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:SourceURL#Troublesome_URLs

The Packaging Naming Guidelines has added an exception for Documentation
Packages to embed the OS version in the name. Note: Packages wishing to
leverage this exception will need to get explicit approval from the
Fedora Documentation Project.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:NamingGuidelines#Documentation_Packages_with_Embedded_OS_versioning

The Scriptlet Snippets page section on Icon Cache handling was updated:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/ScriptletSnippets#Icon_Cache

The Haskell Guidelines were updated:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Haskell

The PHP Guidelines were updated to handle Channel packages:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:PHP

These guidelines (and changes) were approved by the Fedora Packaging
Committee (FPC) and ratified by FESCo.

Many thanks to Remi Collet, Yaakov Nemoy, Lubomir Rintel, and all
of the members of the FPC and FESCo, for assisting in drafting,
refining, and
passing these guidelines.

As a reminder: The Fedora Packaging Guidelines are living documents! If you
find something missing, incorrect, or in need of revision, you can
suggest a draft change. The procedure for this is documented here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Committee#GuidelineChangeProcedure

Thanks,

~spot

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