Re: Punctuation characters in Debian packaging

[Ansgar Burchardt <ansgar@debian.org>]

On 11/04/2014 04:39 PM, The Wanderer wrote:
> The 'packagename-' syntax for 'apt-get install' and similar, and the
> 'packagename+' syntax for 'apt-get remove' and similar, are so well and
> so long established that I would argue against changing them at this
> point.
[...]
> Would it be reasonable to write a requirement into some appropriate
> document (possibly Policy) forbidding such near-overlap package names,
> on account of this syntax?

No. I don't think package names should be forbidden just because APT
treats them in a special way. Otherwise you would have to forbid "+" and
"." anywhere in package names as well as trailing "-" as apt treats all
of those in a special way:

  apt-get -s remove b.sh
  apt-get -s remove ba+sh

Ansgar