Re: Explain /etc/alternatives to me
servis@purdue.edu said
> Hi all,
>
> Can someone please explain to me how to USE /etc/alternatives. I know
> what it is for but how does one take advantage of the links in it?
> Should it be the first item in the PATH? What? The man page is
> basically useless, Ch. 10 of the Developers Manual just explains what
> alternatives are, and the --help option of update-alternatives just
> shows how to update the links in /etc/alternatives.
>
Just for everyone's sake:
multiple packages may provide the same file - a good example is the
various VI clones - they all produce /usr/bin/vi. (and /usr/man/man1/vi.1...)
Without the /etc/alternatives mechanism the last VI clone installed would
be the vi you'd use. This is not desirable - just because we installed
vim doesn't mean that we don't want Elvis to be our system-wide VI.
Alternatives replaces /usr/bin/vi with a symbolic link to /etc/alternatives/vi
which is it'self a symbolic link to the actual program. On one of my systems
it's /usr/bin/elvisnox, on another it's /usr/bin/elvis.
The short of it is that you *don't* want to execute the files in
/etc/altenatives - They should point to executables that are already in your
path.
> Thanks,
>
> Brian
> --
> Mechanical Engineering servis@purdue.edu
> Purdue University http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~servis
>
Stick
--
Chuck Stickelman, Owner E-Mail: <stick@richnet.net>
Practical Network Design Voice: +1-419-529-3841
9 Chambers Road FAX: +1-419-529-3625
Mansfield, OH 44906-1301 USA
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