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Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:25:29 -0700
From: Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org>
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Cc: Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org>, freebsd-current@freebsd.org,
	Gabor Kovesdan <gabor@freebsd.org>, freebsd-ports@freebsd.org,
	Oleg Moskalenko <oleg.moskalenko@citrix.com>
Subject: Re: CFT: new BSD-licensed sort available
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On 03/14/2012 15:14, Jonathan Anderson wrote:
> In fact, the runtime behaviour of the Debian "alternatives" system is simpler than that:
> http://segfault.in/2010/04/using-the-debian-alternatives-system/
> 
> The custom Perl script with a config file is used to set up symlinks, which at runtime are... well, just symlinks. For instance, /usr/bin/vim is a symlink to /etc/alternatives/vim, which is itself a symlink to a binary like vim.gtk (example shamelessly stolen from the linked page, since I no longer have any Debian boxes to check for myself on :). No magic binaries or argv[0] fu.

This sounds like a good solution to more than one problem. Does anyone
know why they indirect through 2 sets of symlinks? That article doesn't
touch on the "why?" only the what.


Doug

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