Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:25:29 -0700 From: Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org> To: Jonathan Anderson <jonathan.anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk> 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 Message-ID: <4F63E809.1080606@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <ACA5E377-BFF9-4C1D-8499-A8003FFE79B3@cl.cam.ac.uk> References: <4F60C059.7060904@FreeBSD.org> <CAJ-VmokUV8t3W4CueZuiZC7e=FuVtFu1jq54V_NpRc79-3QG=w@mail.gmail.com> <ACA5E377-BFF9-4C1D-8499-A8003FFE79B3@cl.cam.ac.uk>
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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 -- This .signature sanitized for your protection
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