June 2025
Beginner to intermediate
1180 pages
37h 48m
English
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16.10 Managing Parallel Installations (Alternatives)
On Linux, there are often several alternative programs to choose from that serve the same purpose and sometimes even use the same command name: editors, Java environments, and so on. In some situations, it is convenient to install several variants or even several versions of one and the same program in parallel. As long as each program version ends up in its own directory tree, the installation itself is possible without conflicts. But which program version is used when the user executes a certain command?
To answer this question, many common distributions use a concept first developed by Debian, based on symbolic links in the /etc/alternatives directory. The following list indicates which ...
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