Bug#42964: More on the same subject from cpbs@debian.org

[David Coe <david.coe@someotherplace.org>]

About update-ispell-dictionary: In the postinst of wenglish, I put some
code to read the old "/etc/dictionary" symlink and force the new
/etc/alternatives/dictionary to point to the corresponding new place.
You might want to consider having update-ispell-dictionary use the same
trick:

  # Install a bogus alternative:
  update-alternatives --install /usr/share/dict/words dictionary / 1000
  # Point the link to the right place:
  ln -snf /usr/share/dict/american-english /etc/alternatives/dictionary
  # Remove bogus alternative, which also notices the changed symlink
  # and causes the "dictionary" alternative group to go into manual
  # mode:
  update-alternatives --remove dictionary /

Cheers,
Charles Briscoe-Smith