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Re: column - how to get it updated?

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On Thu, 25 Jul 2019, David Wright wrote:

> On Fri 26 Jul 2019 at 02:57:40 (+0000), davidson wrote:
>> On Thu, 25 Jul 2019, Richard Hector wrote:
>>
>>> On 25/07/19 3:26 PM, Andrew Punnett wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Debian currently uses the `column` command from FreeBSD. However,
>>>> the `column` command included in the util-linux package from the
>>>> Linux Kernel Organisation is much more useful.
>>>>
>>>> There is a bug report about this at
>>>> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=908975, which
>>>> ends with the Debian util-linux package maintainer stating:
>>
>> [SNIPPED, in order to insert immediately-prior context from bugreport]
>>
>> "If you want the bsdutils to provide (util-linux version of) the tools
>> you need to convince the bsdmainutils maintainers that they should
>> stop shipping theirs, since we can't have file collisions between
>> different packages (ie. debian policy forbids two different packages
>> to provide the same file)."
>>
>>>> "Until you've convinced the bsdmainutils maintainers we should
>>>> change to the util-linux versions, there's nothing that can be done
>>>> on the util-linux/bsdutils side - thus the wontfix tag."
>>>>
>>>> How can we persuade the Debian bsdmainutils package maintainers to
>>>> allow the Linux version of column to be shipped?
>>>
>>> Can't they all get along by using /etc/alternatives?
>>
>> I don't think file collisions are the kind of thing the debian
>> alternatives system is meant to solve.
>
> That's news to me. I was under the impression that /etc/alternatives
> is the mechanism by which "rename" can be used for two different
> commands, prename and file-rename, which would otherwise collide
> with the name /usr/bin/rename.

TL;DNR: You might be able to call any cat in the neigborhood with
"Here, kitty kitty." That doesn't make "Kitty" its name.

I'll try to elaborate as briefly as I can (though I lack the Curt's
flair for brevity).

I think of the debian alternatives system like a sort of Yellow Pages,
where the local administrator gets to determine the relative
prominence of entries under each generic service/accomodation.

So if my needs are merely generic, I can order {a pizza, a cab,...}
anywhere, even in an unfamiliar town. The debian alternatives system
curates a collection of "generic names"* (like /usr/bin/Pizzeria in my
vivid imagination, or /usr/bin/rename in your chosen example) to
support this, to represent *sorts* of services/accomodations
generically desired, and provides conventions so that merely knowing
the type of thing you want is sufficient to obtain some instance of it
(as long as some instance is installed).

It doesn't mean all the pizza vendors can finally all name their
respective pizzerias "Pizzeria," free of confusion. ("Hooray, someone
invented Yellow Pages! Let's name all the things 'Hodor!'") Likewise,
is it not fortunate that the two different commands in your
illustration, named "prename" and "file-rename", do have *different*
names?

That is all.

[*] In the parlance of update-alternatives(1).

>
> (I realise that, as of stretch, one of these versions of rename becomes
> deprecated and will be withdrawn in future, but it's the example that
> comes immediately to mind because they've been around for many years.)
>
> $ rename
> Usage:
>    rename [ -h|-m|-V ] [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -f ] [ -e|-E perlexpr]*|perlexpr
>    [ files ]
>
> $ rename # having just removed package rename
> Deprecated program in use: rename as shipped with the Debian perl
> package will be removed after the release of stretch. Please install
> the separate 'rename' package which will provide the same command.
>
> Usage: rename [-v] [-n] [-f] perlexpr [filenames]
> $
>
> Cheers,
> David.
>

-- 
  The day will come              |  Last words, August Spies (1855--1887).
  When our silence will be       |  Hanged, by the U.S. state of Illinois,
  More powerful than             |  alongside fellow journalists
  The voices you strangle today  |  Adolf Fischer and Albert Parsons.

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Thread

column - how to get it updated? Andrew Punnett <andrew.punnett@gmail.com> - 2019-07-25 05:50 +0200
  Re: column - how to get it updated? Kenneth Parker <sea7kenp@gmail.com> - 2019-07-25 06:10 +0200
    Re: column - how to get it updated? Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2019-07-25 14:30 +0200
  Re: column - how to get it updated? Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2019-07-25 06:50 +0200
    Re: column - how to get it updated? davidson <davidson@freevolt.org> - 2019-07-26 05:00 +0200
      Re: column - how to get it updated? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-07-26 06:30 +0200
        Re: column - how to get it updated? Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> - 2019-07-26 07:30 +0200
        Re: column - how to get it updated? davidson <davidson@freevolt.org> - 2019-07-26 14:30 +0200
          Re: column - how to get it updated? David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-07-26 18:40 +0200
      Re: column - how to get it updated? Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2019-07-26 10:00 +0200
        Re: column - how to get it updated? Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2019-07-26 14:40 +0200
          Re: column - how to get it updated? Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2019-07-26 15:00 +0200

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