Bug#257726: debian-policy: Please remove virtual package cron-daemon

[Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net>]

Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.6.1.1
Severity: normal

This was discussed on debian-devel, and I thought disposed of as
useless. Unfortunately, the discussion did not make it back to the BTS
or debian-policy, and thus this was inadvertently added.

The problem is that merely defining a 'cron-daemon' virtual package is
pointless. One must also define what interfaces it supports. What does
package providing 'cron-daemon' promise:

1. Correct execution of /etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}?

2. Correct execution of /etc/cron.d?

3. /usr/bin/crontab?

4. /var/spool/cron/crontabs/* (think 'upgrade' from vixie cron to a
different 'cron-daemon' provider)

5. What subset of the syntax/semantics described in crontab(5) are
supported (affects 2, 3, and 4.)?

Until these questions are answered and published in debian-policy, the
cron-daemon virtual package should not be allowed.

(Note that I personally don't care *what* the answers are to the above
questions. If people agree that #1 is required, and everything else
is optional, that's fine, but until we know, no package can usefully
depend on 'cron-daemon', any more than they could usefully depend on
mail-transport-agent w/o the existence of section 11.6)

Steve

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (900, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.23
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

-- no debconf information