On Thu, 09 Oct 2003 at 20:30 GMT, David Z Maze penned: > "Monique Y. Herman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> I'd never heard of update-alternatives or /etc/alternatives until a >> few days ago on this list, and to be honest I'm still a little (a >> lot) foggy on what exactly it's used for. For instance, I have >> /etc/alternatives/vi and /etc/alternatives/editor ... what >> applications will use these values? > > nvi, vim, and elvis (all vi clones) will register alternatives for vi; > these, plus emacs, xemacs, nano, etc. will be alternatives for editor. >
Yes, I understand that. What I don't understand is, what uses these registries? Does the system set $EDITOR to /etc/alternatives/editor under the cover? Will typing "kedit" suddenly get me vim? What apps respect alternatives instead of, say, $EDITOR or $PAGER, and how do I find this out? Or is this just a convenience that I can choose to use when setting up my own users? (Also seems weird to me that a bunch of pointers to executables would be stored in /etc, but maybe that's just me.) -- monique -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]