X-Recipient: archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com
X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org
X-Mailer: 21.4 (patch 21) "Educational Television" XEmacs Lucid (via feedmail 10 I)
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: [Attn: alternatives maintainer] - ghostscript preremove breakage
References: <7zk5j0yt70 DOT fsf AT vzell-de DOT de DOT oracle DOT com> 	<4803E1B3 DOT 8070809 AT cwilson DOT fastmail DOT fm>
From: "Dr. Volker Zell" <dr DOT volker DOT zell AT oracle DOT com>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:25:36 +0200
In-Reply-To: <4803E1B3.8070809@cwilson.fastmail.fm> (Charles Wilson's message of "Mon, 	14 Apr 2008 18:58:59 -0400")
Message-ID: <7zbq4ct3wv.fsf@vzell-de.de.oracle.com>
User-Agent: Gnus/5.1008 (Gnus v5.10.8) XEmacs/21.4.21 (cygwin32)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-IsSubscribed: yes
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
List-Id: <cygwin.cygwin.com>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:cygwin-unsubscribe-archive-cygwin=delorie DOT com AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

>>>>> Charles Wilson writes:

    > Dr. Volker Zell wrote:
    >> What does this
    >> path to alternate expected in /var/lib/alternatives/gs
    >> mean ?

    > Some sort of parsing error. At that line in the code, the program
    > expects that the line contains exactly an absolute path to the target
    > program.

    > e.g.
    >   line = parseLine(&bufp);
    >   while (line && *line) {
    set-> alts = realloc(set->alts, (set->numAlts + 1) *
    > sizeof(*set->alts));

    >     if (*line != '/') {
    >       PARANOID_FREE(buf);
    >       fprintf(stderr, _("path to alternate expected in %s\n"), path);
    >       return 1;\
    >     }
    >     ...

    > So, line does not start with '/'. So, it's either somehow in the wrong
    > state when parsing that particular line, or the line has a relative
    > path or something.  What you did not post, was your actual,
    > problematic /var/lib/alternatives/gs file...


I still have a backup from after the setup run upgrading from
ghostscript-8.62-1 to -2.

------- snip -----
auto
/usr/bin/gs

/usr/bin/gs-x11
20
------- snip -----

This matches my expectation from what I see in the setup.log.

    > FWIW, I can't reproduce this. I even tried mounting
    > /var/lib/alternatives in text mode to see if that was the problem. It
    > wasn't.

    > Here is what gs SHOULD look like, if you have both ghostscript and
    > ghostscript-x11 installed:

    > ------ snip -------
    > auto
    > /usr/bin/gs

    > /usr/bin/gs-native
    > 10
    > /usr/bin/gs-x11
    > 20
    > ------ snip ------

This was exactly the content after installation of ghostscript-8.62-1. I
also remember that for example

update-alternatives --display|--config gs

worked.

I just tried again:

I deleted /usr/bin/gs symlink, /etc/alternatives/gs symlink and /var/lib/alternatives/gs.


12:13 AM [506]> update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gs gs /usr/bin/gs-native 10
01:20 AM [507]> update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gs gs /usr/bin/gs-x11 20
path to alternate expected in /var/lib/alternatives/gs
01:20 AM [508]> cat /var/lib/alternatives/gs 
auto
/usr/bin/gs

/usr/bin/gs-native
10


    > Chuck

Ciao
  Volker


--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/