[Mageia-dev] alternatives policy

Wed Apr 11 03:15:10 CEST 2012

11.04.2012 03:13, Maarten Vanraes kirjoitti:
+> Hi,
+> 
+> from a question someone asked, i was reminded why an alternative file ( 
+> /var/lib/rpm/alternative/gl_conf ) was not owned.
+> 
+> I found out that alternative files are usually %ghost 'ed, but it seems not in 
+> this case.
+> 
+> I looked at the alternatives policy, but it was empty as it needs yet to be 
+> written.
+> 
+> so, is it true that alternative files should be %ghost 'ed? or not?
+
+/var/lib/rpm/alternatives/foo is not an "alternative file" (at least not
+IMHO), but an internal update-alternaties db, so it is not ghosted.
+
+It is automatically removed by update-alternatives when it becomes empty
+(i.e. all packages providing the alternative have been removed).
+
+There is one problem regarding this, though. If the files becomes
+corrupted, the alternatives system becomes kind of stuck... IMO it
+should zero/drop the /var/lib/rpm/alternatives/foo on error (possibly
+with a backup). AFAICS this would mean changing the badfmt() error
+handler in /usr/sbin/update-alternatives to remove/move the file and
+changing the open(AF, "$admindir/$name") loop starting in line 135 to
+handle errors gracefully...
+
+-- 
+Anssi Hannula
+