nusenu:
I'm generating instance names based on IP addresses_ORport (so they contain "." and "_") and are therefore filtered by the generator.
Is it acceptable to add "." and "_" to the whitelist?
(patches attached)
Based on the output of 'systemd-escape' (a tool that escapes strings for use in unit names) it is safe to use "." and "_" in unit names.
I am always wary of allowing dots in anything. Allowing dots and thereby also allowing ".." is the origin of many vectors. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's a problem here, but it's the reason I usually exclude periods from.
Since systemd devs deem it safe to use "." (and also "..") in unit files would you share their opinion or will "." stay excluded?
You are tending towards not adding it? Either way it would be nice to have a decision so I could move forward (either by simply waiting for an package update or if rejected, by finding a not-to-ugly work around for that limitation).
Another is that I want to be able to move foo to foo.disabled or foo.bak, and have it not get picked up.
That does not conflict with the idea to allow dots, yes?
For the record: I "solved" this problem by replacing the generator shipped by the debian package. (I added "_" and "." to the list of allowed characters.)
On systemd v219 this is rather easy, since replacing package generators is a build in feature of systemd, on debian stable (systemd v215) a dpkg-statoverride "hack" has been used, thanks to Martin Pitt (debian/ubuntu dev) for this hint.
https://github.com/nusenu/ansible-relayor/blob/0406395a8758f12abd57914532cc0...