Re: preserving window manager selection on upgrades.
On Thu, May 18, 2000 at 01:57:55AM -0400, Branden Robinson wrote:
> > > I'm pretty sure when I upgraded from slink that my window manager
> > > settings were silently ignored and I had to explore for a while to
> > > figure out about the new update-alternatives setup. (I could be
> > > misremembering, though.)
> >
> > Ouch. We should fix that... Maybe xfree86-common could do something like
> > this in its postinst:
> >
> > if [ "$2" ] && dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt 3.3.2.3a; then
> > wm=$(grep "^[^ *#]" /etc/X11/window-managers 2>/dev/null | head -1)
> > if [ "$wm" ]; then
> > update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-window-manager \
> > x-window-manager $wm 100
> > fi
> > fi
> >
> > Branden, what do you think?
>
> Not a bad idea. Although most, if not all, window managers have upgraded
> to the new mechanism, we can't (and shouldn't try to) constrain
> miscellaneous incremental upgrades.
>
> With some tweaks, I will include the above modification in 3.3.6-7. For
> instance, the version comparison should be changed.
Oh, right... I couldn't remember what was the exact revision. Anyway,
thanks.
BTW have you read the rest of the thread, someone said that it might even be
better to symlink the correct wm just with ln -sf, so that the priority
doesn't get lowered back to the default value when the window manager is
upgraded? I seem to remember this can go wrong...
> > Actually, it's easy to use now, just do `update-alternatives --config
> > x-window-manager'. But of course, you'd first have to know the name of the
> > alternative... so it better be done automatically on upgrade.
>
> I do think it is a better idea to manage X window managers with the
> established alternatives mechanism rather than with a unique mechanism.
> Older users may grumble at the transition, but new users will be glad that
> the alternatives mechanism has broad applicability once they've learned it.
Right. Although the transition should be done better, since window-managers
file that is left after upgrade still has the same comments, so people might
think nothing happened. Maybe it should be erased or something.
--
Digital Electronic Being Intended for Assassination and Nullification
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