Fuzzy explanation for cron.d scripts not handled by anacron

[Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca>]

Please CC me on all replies as I am not on this list.

Debian Policy 3.5.6.0 section 10.5 says:

     (Note that entries in the `/etc/cron.d' directory are not handled by
     `anacron'.  Thus, you should only use this directory for jobs which
     may be skipped if the system is not running.)

I find this a bit obtuse.

I stumble on "jobs which may be skipped" (which implies that there may
also be jobs which are not skipped) "if the system is not running" (which
implies that no jobs will run anyway).

I understand, after discussing this on #debian-devel, that this means that
/etc/cron.d jobs will not be "caught up" if the system goes offline for a
while.  But it is very difficult to arrive at this understanding from the
note shown above.

Could someone please clarify this note into something a bit more coherent?

Thanks,
Ben
-- 
    nSLUG       http://www.nslug.ns.ca      synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
    Debian      http://www.debian.org       synrg@debian.org
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