Re: RFC: Idea for improved diversions and alternatives handling

[Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@linpro.no>]

* Ian Jackson 

|   --divert
|       In practice diversity in this option seems to cause more
|       trouble than it's worse.  Perhaps we should settle on
|       `.diverted' or something ?

[...]

| Which leaves only the pathname :-).

While diverting libraries is something that should be done with a bit of
thought and great care, it is sometimes necessary.  In that case, making
sure the diverted library goes to a separate directory often makes sense
to avoid confusing ldconfig.  Therefore, I would like to be able to
specify the path to be diverted to, not just the pathname to be
diverted.  I guess we could make it optional, so the common case would
just be:

debian/foo.divert:
/bin/ls

And the uncommon case:
debian/foo.divert:
/lib/libc.so.6 /lib/foo/libc.so.6

(Whose responsibility it is to ensure /lib/foo exists in that scenario
is something I'm not completely sure about, but it probably makes sense
for it to be dpkg, making sure it's root:root 0644).

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen / Linpro AS    t: 21 54 41 73

UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are