[request-tracker-maintainers] debian-policy: package names with dots/periods ('.') and crontab files: packagers beware

[Dominic Hargreaves]

On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 05:02:27PM -0500, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> (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 at 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)

This should presumably say "should install a file in /etc/cron.d (with
a file name...".

> >> 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.

Seconded, with my above correction.

Thanks to all for taking the time to improve the situation.

Dominic.

-- 
Dominic Hargreaves | http://www.larted.org.uk/~dom/
PGP key 5178E2A5 from the.earth.li (keyserver,web,email)