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Alternatives
Alternatives provide means for parallel installation of packages which provide the same functionality by maintaining sets of symlinks (one per package) pointing to alternativized files like this: `+/path/original-file -> /etc/alternatives/packagename-original-file -> /path/original-file.suffix+` For more information, see `+update-alternatives(8)+` manpage.
Usage within Fedora
Alternatives *MAY* be used to allow parallel installation of software when:
the software can be used as a drop-in replacement and functions with sufficient similarity that users and other programs would, within reason, not need to know which variant is currently installed
*AND*
the selection of the software is only performed system-wide by the system administrator and end users do not have a need to switch between the variants.
Inversely, alternatives *MUST NOT* be used when:
The software is not a drop-in replacement. For instance, if common command line arguments are different between the two variants, alternatives *MUST NOT* be used.
*OR*
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

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8905745 String information

Source string description
type: Plain text
Flags
read-only
Source string location
./pages/Alternatives.adoc:32
String age
3 years ago
Last updated
a year ago
Source string age
3 years ago
Translation file
pot/master/pages/Alternatives.pot, string 9