Installation instructions for the current release: see . Packaging manual is the primary documentation on the technical aspects of creating Debian binary and source packages.

You can find it in the . Policy manual documents the policy requirements for the distribution, i.e. the structure and contents of the Debian archive, several design issues of the operating system, as well as technical requirements that each package must satisfy to be included in the distribution.

Get it from the . Documentation on installed Debian packages: Most packages have files that are unpacked into /usr/doc/PACKAGE. Documentation on the Linux project: The Debian package . Unix-style `man' pages: Most commands have manual pages written in the style of the original Unix 'man' files. They are referenced by the section of the 'man' directory where they reside: e.g., foo(3) refers to a manual page which resides in /usr/share/man/man3/, and it can be called by executing the command: man 3 foo, or just man foo if section 3 is the first one containing a page on foo.

One can learn which directory of /usr/share/man/ contains a certain manual page by executing man -w foo.

New Debian users should note that the 'man' pages of many general system commands are not available until they install these packages: man-db, which contains the man program itself, and other programs for manipulating the manual pages. manpages, which contains the system manual pages. (see ). GNU-style `info' pages: User documentation for many commands, particularly GNU tools, is available not in `man' pages, but in `info' files which can be read by the GNU tool info, by running M-x info within GNU Emacs, or with some other Info page viewer.

Its main advantage over the original `man' pages are that it is a hypertext system. It does not require the WWW, however; info can be run from a plain text console. It was designed by Richard Stallman and preceded the WWW.

Note that you may access a lot of documentation on your system by using a WWW browser, through `dwww' or `dhelp' commands, found in respective packages. Are there any on-line resources for discussing Debian?

There are a lot of Debian-related mailing lists.

On a system with the /usr/share/doc/debian/mailing-lists.txt.

To subscribe to debian-X (for X in announce, user, etc.), send mail to debian-X-request@lists.debian.org with the word "subscribe" in the Subject: header. If you have a forms-capable World Wide Web browser, you can subscribe the mailing lists using the . You can also un-subscribe using that form.

The list manager's e-mail address is Archives of the Debian mailing lists are available via WWW at .

Users can address questions to individual package maintainers, since their e-mail addresses are provided in the Debian control file (see section ) that is included within each package. One can also learn the maintainers' names and e-mail addresses by searching the "Packages" file, since this file is just a concatenation of all the available package control files in a particular directory tree. To extract a control file from a particular Debian package, use the command: dpkg --info packageName_VVV-RRR.deb

Users should post non-Debian-specific questions to one of the Linux USENET groups, which are named comp.os.linux.* or linux.*. There are several lists of Linux Usenet newsgroups and other related resources on the WWW, e.g. on the and sites. What is the code of conduct for the mailing lists?

When using the Debian mailing lists, please follow these rules: Do not flame; it is not polite. The people developing Debian are all volunteers, donating their time, energy and money in an attempt to bring the Debian project together. Do not use foul language; besides, some people receive the lists via packet radio, where swearing is illegal. Make sure that you are using the proper list. Use the listname-REQUEST@lists.debian.org address for that. See section for notes on reporting bugs. Mailing list advertising policy

The &debian; mailing lists accept commercial advertising for payment. We offer a fee waiver if you can show us the cancelled check for a $1000 (U.S.) or more donation to the Free Software Foundation earmarked for "Debian". One donation per advertisement, please. If you do not wish to donate, simply post your advertisement to the list, and the operator of the mailing lists will bill $1999 (U.S). The list operator will donate this amount, minus the expense of collecting it, to FSF.

By the act of posting your advertisement you agree to accept responsibility for the fee, you agree to indemnify the mailing-list operator against any legal claims from you or others in connection with your advertisement, and you agree to pay any legal and business expenses incurred in collecting late payment. Our liability to you is limited to a good-faith effort to deliver your message.

Reduced rates and/or waiver of fee are available for Debian-related advertisements. You must consult the mailing-list operator in advance of posting for any reduction or fee waiver. Is there a quick way to search for information on &debian;?

There are a variety of search engines that serve documentation related to Debian: . . To find out what experiences people have had with finding drivers for Western Digital controllers, try searching on this phrase: linux & WD This tells DejaNews to report any postings containing both the string "linux" AND the string "WD". (as a side note: when one of the authors of this text used it, he discovered that his WD card (which he had only had for 6 months) had been declared outmoded by Adaptec, because they bought WD then. So there were no drivers available. Bless Adaptec's hearts.) Any of the web spidering engines (such as or ) can also be used to search Usenet (although they may not be quite as up to date as DejaNews).

For example, searching on the string "cgi-perl" gives a more detailed explanation of this package than the brief description field in its control file. Are there logs of known bugs?

The &debian; distribution has a bug tracking system (BTS) which files details of bugs reported by users and developers. Each bug is given a number, and is kept on file until it is marked as having been dealt with.

Copies of this information are available at .

A mail server provides access to the bug tracking system database via e-mail. In order to get the instructions, send an e-mail to request@bugs.debian.org with "help" in the body. How do I report a bug in Debian?

If you have found a bug in Debian, please read the instructions for reporting a bug in Debian. These instructions can be obtained in one of several ways: By anonymous FTP. Debian mirror sites contain the instructions in the file doc/bug-reporting.txt. From the WWW. A copy of the instructions is shown at . On any Debian system with the /usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt.

You can use the packages If you want to mail the report with a MUA, send a message to Package: packagename (replace "packagename" with the name of the package). The rest of the message should contain the description of the bug (please make it moderately detailed), Debian release you are using, and versions of that and relevant packages.

Expect to get an automatic acknowledgement of your bug report. It will also be automatically given a bug tracking number, entered into the bug log and forwarded to the debian-bugs-dist mailing list.

If one were to identify a bug that was common to many programs, then rather than entering dozens of very similar bug reports, one might prefer to send individual bugs to Additionally, there exists a Debian package checker, called , which is designed to mechanically check Debian packages for policy violations and common packaging errors. Thus, if you detect a bug in a package which is likely to appear in other packages too, it might be better to get in contact with the Lintian maintainers at You can also use