Bug#695916: libreoffice-common: libreoffice installs its own /ust/bin/soffice instead of using debian alternatives system
Package: libreoffice-common
Version: 1:3.5.4+dfsg-4
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
Since the fork between LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org (now Apache OpenOffice),
both suites install /usr/bin/soffice directly.
This completely prevents users to install both on the same computer, despite
Debian does provide a fully mature way
to support that: the alternatives.
This is particularly annnoying since /usr/bin/soffice is already a link, so
technically there is no point in forcing its destination
at installation.
With the current setting, attemptin to install the suite A when suite B has
been installed beforehand fails (whatever are
A and B, the problem is the same in both installation orders). The failure is
that dpkg refuses to overwrite /usr/bin/soffce since
it is own by the first package installed. Installation can be force using dpkg
only using the --force-overwrite flag. This is
really inconvenient and seems to contradict Debian installation rules. Even if
people manage to install both packages using dpkg
and --force-overwrite, upgrading also don't work and the same trick has to be
reused to overwrite the link.
LibreOffice (and Apache OpenOffice too) should use the alternative mechanism to
set up the /usr/bin/soffice link.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.utf8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Versions of packages libreoffice-common depends on:
ii dpkg 1.16.9
ii libreoffice-style-galaxy [libreoffice-style-default] 1:3.5.4+dfsg-4
ii libreoffice-style-tango [libreoffice-style] 1:3.5.4+dfsg-4
ii ure 3.5.4+dfsg-4
Versions of packages libreoffice-common recommends:
ii libexttextcat-data 3.2.0-2
ii xfonts-mathml 6
Versions of packages libreoffice-common suggests:
pn libreoffice-style-crystal <none>
pn libreoffice-style-hicontrast <none>
pn libreoffice-style-oxygen <none>
ii libreoffice-style-tango 1:3.5.4+dfsg-4
-- no debconf information
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