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Re: "goals" for slink: FHS



Hello:

srivasta@datasync.com said:
> 	Hmm. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of
>  compatibility symlinks. But then, at some point we shal;l have to
>  bite the bullet and remove them. We are just postponing the issue of
>  transition and compatibility until we have to remove the symlinks --
>  however,it maybe that by that time very few people would not have an
>  updated set of man/info/etc packages, andit would be less painful.

How about this idea:  We provide a little tool, let's say create-compat-symlink, that is invoked by every package installing man pages to /usr/share/man.  The main purpose of the tool would be to install compatibility symlinks between /usr/man/ and /usr/share/man/, using the set of rules shown below.  Suppose we are going to install the man page /usr/share/man/manN/foo.N (where N is a digit):

1. If /usr/man/manN, contains *at least one* file which as not a symlink to /usr/share/man/manN, install a symlink

  /usr/man/manN/foo.N -> /usr/share/man/manN/foo.N

and stop.

2.  If /usr/man/manN, *only* contains symlinks to /usr/share/man/manN, then delete the whole directory /usr/man/manN and replace it by a symlink

  /usr/man/manN -> /usr/share/man/manN

and,

3. If (in a glorious day) /usr/man, *only* contains symlinks to /usr/share/man, then delete /usr/man and replace it by a symlink

  /usr/man -> /usr/share/man

The same idea could be applied to other directories (like /usr/doc) and would keep backwards compatibility forever.

Opinions?

M. S.

------------
Martin A. Soto J.                           Profesor
Departamento de Ingenieria de Sistemas y Computacion
Universidad de los Andes      masoto@uniandes.edu.co



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