Re: Update alternatives priority mismatch in openSUSE

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Tomas Chvatal writes ("Update alternatives priority mismatch in openSUSE"):
> Hello everyone,
> 
> In SUSE we noticed that some of our python packages were not updating
> their alternatives when migrating from ie python2.6 to python2.7.
> 
> This is due to unfortunate priority set by the maintainers of such
> packages to be equal between py2.6 and py2.7 while pointing to
> different files (eg /usr/bin/pip-2.6 vs /usr/bin/pip-2.7).
> 
> The correct fix that is being implemented is to update the priorities
> to be correctly bumped when this happens in the packages. But for the
> safer world we would also like include patch (see attachment) that
> forces the update even if the priorities are the same. So we can be
> safe against this kind of mistakes in future.
> 
> Would this be acceptable for you guys to merge?

It's not my decision any more, but that update-alternatives prefers to
keep the existing state in this situation was originally my doing and
it was done for a good reason:

Without this, installing or upgrading packages (for example, as a
result of securit updates) would result in the link flapping back and
forth as the different packages fight over it.  The end state would
depend on the exact upgrade order.

So I'm afraid I think your change is a bad idea.

Thanks,
Ian.