Bug#609162: debian-policy: package names with dots/periods ('.') and crontab files: packagers beware

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

(bcc: cron maintainers, request-tracker3.8 maintainers, debianutils
 maintainers, jtmd)
Hi,

Karl E. Jorgensen noticed that the current advice for naming files in
cron.d breaks for packages with a dot in their name and proposed a
small policy change to fix that.  Seconds?  Objections?

The proposed change follows:

Russ Allbery wrote:
> "Karl E. Jorgensen" <karl@jorgensen.org.uk> writes:

>> Can do. are two sentences in secion 9.5 which will need to be changed. 
>>
>> The 2nd sentence in 9.5, which currently reads:
>>
>>     If a package wants to install a job that has to be executed via
>>     cron, it should place a file with the name of the package in one
>>     or more of the following directories:
>>
>> could be changed to:
>>
>>     If a package wants to install a job that has to be executed via
>>     cron, it should place a file with the name of the package (with a
>>     file name as specified in section 9.5.1) in one or more of the
>>     following directories:
>>
>> And further down, the sentence which currently reads:
>>
>>     If a certain job has to be executed at some other frequency or at
>>     a specific time, the package should install a file
>>     /etc/cron.d/package
>>
>> could be changed to:
>>
>>     If a certain job has to be executed at some other frequency or at
>>     a specific time, the package should install a file
>>     /etc/cron.d/package (with a file name as specified in section
>>     9.5.1)
>>
>> and a new section:
>>
>>     9.5.1 File Names for Cron Jobs
>>
>>     File names representing cron jobs should generally be named
>>     according to the package from which it comes.
>>
>>     If a package supplies multiple crontab files in the same
>>     directory, the file names should all start with the name of the
>>     package followed by a hyphen ('-') and a suitable suffix.
>>
>>     The resulting file name must not include any '.' or '+' characters
>>     as this will cause cron to ignore them.  Underscores ('_') should
>>     be used instead of '.' and '+' characters.
>>
>> How does that sound?
>
> Looks good to me.  Seconded, with the minor correction in the
> second-to-last paragraph of s/crontab files/cron job files/ since,
> properly speaking, only the files in /etc/cron.d are actually crontab
> files.  The rest are just executables.

Thanks,
Jonathan