>This isn't a Unix pitfall, it's a Debian pitfall.
And that is an example of why I do not run Debian any more: (1) it assumes that I have nothing better to do than learn all of the details of the Debian system and (2) as soon as some complication like this dots-in-filenames thing makes it into stable, it is very difficult to remove because most Debian maintainers consider it-might-break-existing-code a winning argument.
"It might break existing code" is usually a winning argument. It takes a very strong opposing argument to beat it. If you don't believe in this, I don't want to use any of your code.
I can see how server software needs to be more conservative about making changes. I'm glad I am not using server software anymore for my personal software environment.
Slackware. As usual, takes the good bits out of both RedHat's and Debian's run-parts. It allows .{whatever} but ignores obvious, well-known suffixes like .bak etc.
From man run-parts:
run-parts automatically skips files with certain suffixes that are generally associated with backup or extra files. Any file that ends in one of these will be silently ignored: ~ ^ , .bak .new .rpmsave, .rpmorig .rpmnew .swp
And that is an example of why I do not run Debian any more: (1) it assumes that I have nothing better to do than learn all of the details of the Debian system and (2) as soon as some complication like this dots-in-filenames thing makes it into stable, it is very difficult to remove because most Debian maintainers consider it-might-break-existing-code a winning argument.