Bug#342309: java-package: can't specify update-alternatives priority; default of 315 too low

[Arnaud Vandyck]

Barry Hawkins wrote:
> Elliott Hughes wrote:
> [...]
> 
>>We're using make-jpkg to provide a package for Sun's JDK throughout
 >>the company. We find that some random crappy alternatives (SableVM,
 >>say, or gij) give themselves higher priorities, so we also need to
 >>manually "update-alternatives". We'd like to be able to choose our
 >>own priority for Sun's JDK so we can make it so high it will always
 >>be the "best" alternative, unless someone's gone out of their way
 >>to screw themselves over.

1° This is not a bug;
2° I'll not fix non-bugs for some random crappy users.

> [...]
> Elliott,
>     Thanks for your use of Debian and java-package.  This is a bug whose
> severity is neither "important" or "normal".  The request is to be able
> to override the default values for alternatives that are installed by
> the packages generated by java-package.  This is an addition of
> functionality to the existing program, not the remedy of a bug that is
> making the package unusable.
>     Also, please bear in mind that Debian will _always_ prefer free
> software over non-free.  It may be true that the difference in priority
> between certain items like gij or SableVM is a bit large.  However, your
> labeling of these programs as "some random crappy alternatives" is
> disrespectful to the individuals who have poured hours of uncompensated
> effort into getting the state of the free runtimes for the Java(TM)
> programming language to where they are today.  Please refrain from using
> derogatory terms such as this in your ongoing participation with Debian,
> particularly when filing a request that involves the volunteer,
> uncompensated contributions from individuals other than yourself.

Thanks for your polite response, Barry.

-- Arnaud.