Package review request: OpenBSD calendar(1) command

[Michael Schwendt]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:13:25 +0000, Daniel wrote:

> > /usr/bin/calendar
> 
> So who gets to decide what 'too generic' means ? We already have an even 
> more generic command 'cal'.

It's not that all packages with such file names must be blocked.
They just bear a bigger risk of causing a conflict sometime.

It's not that reviewers must know about all de facto file namings on other
platforms. It could be helpful, however, if reviewers serve as an
early-warning-system, point out poor naming, and raise discussion outside
bugzilla. It's particularly good if upstream can be convinced to pick
file names that lower the risk of causing conflicts.

Nouns, verbs, lots of _simple_ words in dictionaries are likely to
cause conflicts sometime.

  /usr/bin/freeze
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/472616

  /usr/bin/translate
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/472623

  /usr/bin/runtest
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/475223

  /usr/bin/pscp    (i.e.: p in front of scp)
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/472617

  /usr/bin/qstat
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/472750

  /usr/bin/make_torrent
  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/484884

[these are only some recent ones]

Upstream developers, even if they like simple naming of executables
(e.g. as a matter of convenience for scriptable commands), ought to avoid
such file names like the plague. If the files are part of a project with
an own name, using the project name as a prefix to all file names reduces
the risk of future conflicts. That won't avoid all conflicts, but it
lower the risk.