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update-alternatives and GAlternatives

Here is a nice tool on the Debian system.

What is update-alternatives? Well the man page tells you this:

update-alternatives creates, removes, maintains and displays information about the symbolic links comprising the Debian alternatives system.
It is possible for several programs fulfilling the same or similar functions to be installed on a single system at the same time. For example, many systems have several text editors installed at once. (…)
A generic name in the filesystem is shared by all files providing interchangeable functionality. (…) For example, if the text editors ed and nvi are both installed on the system, the alternatives system will cause the generic name /usr/bin/editor to refer to /usr/bin/nvi by default.

This means, for example, that if you have Epiphany Browser and Firefox installed on your system, but you want the default to be Epiphany, you just have to run the command “sudo update-alternatives –config x-www-browser” and chose Epiphany.

To get a list of the available optins you can config, run “ls -l /etc/alternatives”.

And while searching for info on update-alternatives I found Galternatives. It’s a GUI for update-alternatives, so a user can customize is system easily.

To Install and Run:

• sudo apt-get install galternatives
• gksudo galternatives

More Info:

http://www.wlug.org.nz/update-alternatives(8)  (or “man update-alternatives”)