On Monday, 19 May 2008 at 23:39, Patrice Dumas wrote: > On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 09:51:32PM +0200, Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski wrote: > > Hi. > > > > While reviewing a package, I stumbled across the use of alternatives > > and found out it's not regulated in any way in Fedora. So far, I've > > encountered three ways of handling the symlinks that are set up using > > alternatives: > > 1. some packages have Provides: for them (like cups or postfix), > > Not all files are provided, only > /usr/bin/mailq > /usr/bin/newaliases > /usr/bin/rmail > /usr/sbin/sendmail > while man pages are not provided. I think it is right like this. I'm not so sure. I'd like to be able to tell what package provides sendmail(1) manpage. > > 2. some don't own those files at all (like lam or scim), > > 3. some %ghost them. > > > > All seem to work, but in case of 2. it's not possible to find out which > > packages own/provide those files using rpm -qf, thus I consider it an > > inferior solution. > > I don't think it is that important. Having that right would mean > providing all the files in alternatives which could make a lot. In my > opinion the provided files should be those that make sense to have as > provides (or as yum install /usr/..../file). > > > Personally, I'm leaning towards 1., but I don't see any disadvantages > > in 3., either. Comments? > > Doesn't %ghost leads to the file being removed? If only one package was installed, the file would be removed, but if there are two that %ghost the same file, it stays until the last package owning it is removed. > > Having said that, I'm going to write up a guideline to cover that. I expect > > to have a presentable draft ready in a week or two. > > I don't think a guideline is needed, except if there are specific > pitfalls. Some advices may be nice, though. I remember that I asked for > some when I first got interested in fedora. Well, *some* hints are definitely necessary. I was a bit in the dark when I tried to review a package that used alternatives and couldn't find any solid information, only different solutions. Regards, R. -- Fedora contributor http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DominikMierzejewski Livna contributor http://rpm.livna.org MPlayer developer http://mplayerhq.hu "Faith manages." -- Delenn to Lennier in Babylon 5:"Confessions and Lamentations" -- Fedora-packaging mailing list Fedora-packaging@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-packaging
