Bug#814149: add alternative for /usr/bin/dx

[Drew Parsons]

I agree with Graham, this is a plain and simple naming clash.  The only
reasonable resolution is to rename one (or both) of the binaries.  

You could workaround the clash with Conflicts:, but that's not
reasonable either since there's no reason both binaries shouldn't
coexists.

A possible alternative is to place Dalvik dx in a subdir e.g.
/usr/bin/android/dx or /usr/lib/dalvik/dx, and add that directory to
PATH (perhaps with postinst templates to use the administrator choose
whether to do that or to prepend/postpend to PATH)


Drew



On Wed, 2016-02-10 at 11:36 +0200, Graham Inggs wrote:
> Hi Hans-Christoph
> 
> On 8 February 2016 at 21:25, Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans at at.or.at>
> wrote:
> > We have just packaged the "Dalvik Explorer" aka android-platform-
> > dalvik
> > which is always used as the command util 'dx'.
> 
> Always?  IBM's DX has been around since 1991. :)
> 
> > This conflicts with
> > OpenDX's /usr/bin/dx, so I propose that OpenDX support /usr/bin/dx
> > using
> > the 'alternatives' system.
> 
> I don't believe the 'alternatives' system is the way to solve this.
> 
> From:
> "The Debian alternatives system creates a way for several programs
> that fulfill the same or similar functions to be listed as
> alternative
> implementations that are installed simultaneously but with one
> particular implementation designated as the default."
> 
> Clearly Dalvik Explorer's /usr/bin/dx and OpenDX's /usr/bin/dx do not
> fulfil the same or similar functions.
> 
> I'm CC-ing the Debian Science list as I am sure similar situations
> have been resolved in the past, and hopefully someone will suggest
> possible solutions.
> 
> Regards
> Graham
> 
> 
> [1] http://www.opendx.org/about.html
> [2] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianAlternatives
>