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End users will care which variant they are using. If a non-root user would gain value by switching between the variants then alternatives *MUST NOT* be used.
A good example of using alternatives are the various MTAs which all provide `+/usr/bin/sendmail+` with similar command line arguments.
Bad examples of using alternatives include:
the various MPI environments where users care both about which MPI environment they compile against and which one they run against
choice of editor when the user invokes "vi" where the user will care about feature availability, compatibility with plugins, etc
Cases where parallel installation is desirable but alternatives is unsuitable may be scenarios where link:../EnvironmentModules/[Environment Modules] are appropriate. MPI and python-sphinx (until Fedora 31) are example packages using environment-modules for this purpose.
How to use alternatives
If a package is using alternatives, the files which would otherwise conflict MUST be installed with an appropriate suffix (for example: `+%{_bindir}/sendmail.postfix+` instead of `+%{_bindir}/sendmail+`), the original locations MUST be touched (for example: `+touch %{_bindir}/sendmail+`), the links set up by alternatives MUST be listed as %ghost in the file list and proper Requires: MUST be added, like in the examples below.
Putting the alternativized files in the file list ensures that they are owned by respective packages, which means that commands like:
rpm -qf /usr/bin/foo
dnf install /usr/bin/foo
repoquery --whatprovides /usr/bin/foo
all work properly. Using %ghost for this purpose allows using globs and generated file lists.
Examples
Example from antlr.spec:
Requires(post): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
Requires(postun): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
...
%install
...
touch %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/antlr
%post
update-alternatives --install %{_bindir}/antlr \
%{name} %{_bindir}/antlr-java 10
%postun
if [ $1 -eq 0 ] ; then
update-alternatives --remove %{name} %{_bindir}/antlr-java
fi
...
%files
...
%ghost %{_bindir}/antlr
%{_bindir}/antlr-java
And a more complex example of alternatives invocation from sendmail.spec, slightly edited:
Requires(post): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
Requires(postun): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
Requires(preun): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
...
%install
...
# rename files for alternative usage
mv %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/sendmail %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/sendmail.sendmail
touch %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/sendmail
for i in mailq newaliases rmail; do
mv %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/$i %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/$i.sendmail
touch %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/$i
done
mv %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man1/mailq.1 %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man1/mailq.sendmail.1
touch %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man1/mailq.1
mv %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man1/newaliases.1 %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man1/newaliases.sendmail.1
touch %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man1/newaliases.1
mv %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man5/aliases.5 %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man5/aliases.sendmail.5
touch %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man5/aliases.5
mv %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man8/sendmail.8 %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man8/sendmail.sendmail.8
touch %{buildroot}%{_mandir}/man8/sendmail.8
%postun
if [ "$1" -ge "1" ]; then
if [ "`+readlink %{_sysconfdir}/alternatives/mta+`" == "%{_bindir}/sendmail.sendmail" ]; then
%{_bindir}/alternatives --set mta %{_bindir}/sendmail.sendmail
fi
fi
%post
# Set up the alternatives files for MTAs.
update-alternatives --install %{_bindir}/sendmail mta %{_bindir}/sendmail.sendmail 90 \
--slave %{_bindir}/mailq mta-mailq %{_bindir}/mailq.sendmail \
--slave %{_bindir}/newaliases mta-newaliases %{_bindir}/newaliases.sendmail \
--slave %{_bindir}/rmail mta-rmail %{_bindir}/rmail.sendmail \
--slave /usr/lib/sendmail mta-sendmail /usr/lib/sendmail.sendmail \
--slave %{_sysconfdir}/pam.d/smtp mta-pam %{_sysconfdir}/pam.d/smtp.sendmail \
--slave %{_mandir}/man8/sendmail.8.gz mta-sendmailman %{_mandir}/man8/sendmail.sendmail.8.gz \
--slave %{_mandir}/man1/mailq.1.gz mta-mailqman %{_mandir}/man1/mailq.sendmail.1.gz \
--slave %{_mandir}/man1/newaliases.1.gz mta-newaliasesman %{_mandir}/man1/newaliases.sendmail.1.gz \
--slave %{_mandir}/man5/aliases.5.gz mta-aliasesman %{_mandir}/man5/aliases.sendmail.5.gz \
--initscript sendmail
...
%preun
if [ $1 = 0 ]; then
update-alternatives --remove mta %{_bindir}/sendmail.sendmail
fi
...
%files
...
%ghost %{_bindir}/sendmail
%ghost %{_bindir}/mailq
%ghost %{_bindir}/newaliases
%ghost %{_bindir}/rmail
%ghost /usr/lib/sendmail
%ghost %{_sysconfdir}/pam.d/smtp
%ghost %{_mandir}/man8/sendmail.8.gz
%ghost %{_mandir}/man1/mailq.1.gz
%ghost %{_mandir}/man1/newaliases.1.gz
%ghost %{_mandir}/man5/aliases.5.gz
%{_bindir}/sendmail.sendmail
%{_bindir}/mailq.sendmail
%{_bindir}/newaliases.sendmail
%{_bindir}/rmail.sendmail
/usr/lib/sendmail.sendmail
%config(noreplace) %{_sysconfdir}/pam.d/smtp.sendmail
%{_mandir}/man8/sendmail.sendmail.8.gz
%{_mandir}/man1/mailq.sendmail.1.gz
%{_mandir}/man1/newaliases.sendmail.1.gz
%{_mandir}/man5/aliases.sendmail.5.gz
%attr(0755,root,root) %{_initrddir}/sendmail

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String added in the repository

  1. fedora-docs-l10n/packaging-guidelines
  2. master/pages/Alternatives
  3. English
Requires(post): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
Requires(postun): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
...
%install
...
touch %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/antlr
Requires(post): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
Requires(postun): %{_bindir}/update-alternatives
...
%install
...
touch %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/antlr
8 days ago
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String information

Source string description
type: delimited block -
Flags
no-wrap, read-only
Source string location
./pages/Alternatives.adoc:94
String age
8 days ago
Last updated
8 days ago
Source string age
8 days ago
Translation file
pot/master/pages/Alternatives.pot, string 26