Guillem, Thanks for looking at this! Couldn't this also be added to update-alternatives --display ...so that the --display option provides all the information available about the alternative? For example: jack@berkeley:debian => update-alternatives --display rename rename - auto mode /usr/bin/rename -> /etc/alternatives/rename <<<<<< new to add to --display <<<<<< link currently points to /usr/bin/prename /usr/bin/prename - priority 60 slave rename.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/prename.1.gz Current 'best' version is '/usr/bin/prename'. I thought since --display is also an existing option, it should contain all the info about the alternativeso that the difference between --display and --query continues to be that the latter is easier to parse, as mentioned in the man entry but the contents are the same. thanks,--jack --- On Tue, 6/26/12, Guillem Jover <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Guillem Jover <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Bug#679010: dpkg: update-alternatives has no option to get name of master link To: "js" <[email protected]>, [email protected] Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012, 5:23 AM Hi! On Mon, 2012-06-25 at 13:44:33 -0400, js wrote: > Package: dpkg > Version: 1.16.3 > Severity: normal > To use update-alternatives --install <master link> <name> <path> <pri> ..., > one needs an option in update-alternatives to find the master link if > <name> has just one alternative installed. This is the symbolic link > that points to the /etc/alternatives/<name> > If update-alternatives is the interface to the alternatives system, it > should provide the all information needed to install a new alternative > in all cases. Indeed, the correct option here would be --query but even that one does not provide that information, and what's worse it prints the alternative name as Link instead of Name... I'm thinking about adding a --query-format or something similar and correcting the above for my next push. > There is no option in update-alternatives to find the master link that points > to /etc/alternatives/rename: > > jack@berkeley:tmp => update-alternatives --config rename > There is only one alternative in link group rename: /usr/bin/prename > Nothing to configure. > This fails if there is exactly one alternative installed but works if > multiple alternatives are installed: > jack@berkeley:tmp => update-alternatives --config java > There are 5 choices for the alternative java (providing >/usr/bin/java). <<<<<<<< this is needed for new install <<<<<< > > Selection Path >Priority Status > ------------------------------------------------------------ > 0 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java 1061 >auto mode > 1 /usr/bin/gij-4.6 1046 >manual mode > 2 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java 1061 >manual mode > 3 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java 63 >manual mode > 4 /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java 1051 >manual mode > * 5 /usr/local/sun-java/jre1.7.0_05/bin/java 64 >manual mode Right, and at least this is easily fixable, I'll be adding the link name to the case where there's only one alternative. thanks, guillem
