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RE: update-alternatives
- From: "Gary R. Van Sickle" <g dot r dot vansickle at worldnet dot att dot net>
- To: <cygwin-apps at cygwin dot com>
- Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 16:17:13 -0500
- Subject: RE: update-alternatives
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cygwin-apps-owner@cygwin.com
> [mailto:cygwin-apps-owner@cygwin.com] On Behalf Of Charles Wilson
> Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2005 3:06 PM
> To: cygwin-apps@cygwin.com
> Subject: RFC: update-alternatives
>
> It seems there may be a need for a Debian-like
> update-alternatives system on cygwin (see the recent thread
> on the main list about making /bin/sh be bash instead of
> ash). Also, such a system would be a better approach than my
> cobbled-together postinstall scripts for the many new
> versions of automake (ditto libpng).
[snip]
On the symlinks issue:
Suppose instead of the current shortcut hybrid scheme, and also instead of
copying the executables, and also instead of using NT-only hardlinks (which
IIUC aren't Unixoid enough to be "drop-ins" anyway), "Somebody" wrote a
"symlink.exe" executable that worked sort of like this:
- A suitable centralized alternatives database would be kept somewhere, with
entries of a "/bin/ls == /bin/alternatives/actual-ls.exe" nature.
- The "symlink.exe" program would be a one-pager that you copied, under the
"assumed name" of the exe you're trying to symlink. So, as the /bin/ls.exe
executable, it would:
- See that it was executed with the name "/bin/ls.exe"
- Look up "/bin/ls.exe" in the database to find which real executable it
should run.
- spawn() that real executable.
That would solve the "can't run it from a windows command line" problem,
wouldn't it?
--
Gary R. Van Sickle