Here are the latest changes to the Fedora Packaging Guidelines:

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A new set of guidelines have been written for handling systemd in packages:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines:Systemd https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:ScriptletSnippets#Systemd

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A new set of guidelines have been written for packaging Octave packages: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Octave

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Some clarification was added to the Guidelines section on Macros. Previously, it said:

"Use macros instead of hard-coded directory names (see Packaging:RPMMacros )."

Now, that line has been replaced with:

"Packagers are strongly encouraged to use macros instead of hard-coded directory names (see Packaging:RPMMacros ). However, in situations where the macro is longer than the path it represents, or situations where the packager feels it is cleaner to use the actual path, the packager is permitted to use the actual path instead of the macro. There are several caveats to this approach:

* The package must be consistent. For any given path, within the same spec, use either a hard-coded path or a macro, not a combination of the two. * %{_libdir} must always be used for binary libraries due to multi-lib, you may not substitute a hard-coded path. "

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Macros

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The Guidelines covering MinGW packaging have been updated for Fedora 16. The previous guidelines still apply for older Fedora releases (Fedora 15 and older) and all RHEL releases.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:MinGW https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:MinGW_Old

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The Packaging Guidelines have been updated to allow the use of /run and to clarify that directory hierarchies not listed in the FHS are not allowed unless listed in the Packaging Guidelines.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#Filesystem_Layout

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In the past (pre rpm 4.4), it was necessary to have a %defattr section at the beginning of each %files section, but this is now the default and no longer necessary to explicitly include.

The guidelines have been updated in numerous places to remove references to hard-coded %defattr sections.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#File_Permissions

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The Scriptlets for GSettings have been updated to:

%postun if [ $1 -eq 0 ] ; then glib-compile-schemas %{_datadir}/glib-2.0/schemas &> /dev/null || : fi

%posttrans glib-compile-schemas %{_datadir}/glib-2.0/schemas &> /dev/null || :

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:ScriptletSnippets#GSettings_Schema

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

Many thanks to Christopher Aillon, Richard W. M. Jones, Erik van Pienbroek, Lennart Poettering, Orion Poplawski, Julian Sikorski, and all of the members of the FPC, 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: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Committee#GuidelineChangeProcedure

Thanks,

~spot