On Thursday 08 March 2007 12:36pm, Matthew Miller wrote: > On Thu, Mar 08, 2007 at 02:30:42PM -0500, Chip Coldwell wrote: > > So should I infer that Fedora has an ambivalent attitude toward the > > /etc/alternatives mechanism? > > I can't speak for everyone, but in general, yes -- it's a necessary evil > for complex compatibile systems like postfix/sendmail/exim, but shouldn't > be used as a general hammer when there's no good reason. I'm not speaking for everyone, either.. I would agree that, in general, we wouldn't want to use alternatives as a "big hammer." alternatives is great when you have competing implementations that are trying to provide the same files. MTA & Java are obvious uses. In this case, we have "competing" builds of the same app. Using a script to decide which one to run is one possible solution, which adds one extra process every time you want to start the program. A symlink is another solution, which is what alternatives does. If we have to have two "competing" emacs packages (and I'm not sure that we even need the nox package), then alternatives can DTRT with a symlink for them, using the priority to pick the right one if both are installed. Another option is make them conflict. I hate this idea and I think most packagers would agree. Packages that conflict with each other are no fun for end users (or admins) to deal with. It's better to not conflict (which is why alternatives even exists, right?). As I asked earlier, why not just simple have the emacs package not depend on the X and GNOME libs? *If* the X/GNOME packages are installed (the libs are present) then list emacs use them if it sees fit (i.e., find $DISPLAY useable). That way, there's only one package to maintain, no need for symlinks, wrapper scripts, alternatives or conflicts, the program "Just Works" the way it should and the X/GNOME libs don't have to be installed just to have emacs. Not that I really care about emacs; I don't like or use it. Vim forever, baby. -- Lamont Peterson <lamont@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Senior Instructor Guru Labs, L.C. [ http://www.GuruLabs.com/ ] NOTE: All messages from this email address should be digitally signed with my 0xDC0DD409 GPG key. It is available on the pgp.mit.edu keyserver as well as other keyservers that sync with MIT's.
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