Bug#317513: kaffe: ELOOP because of multiple alternatives when /usr is a symlink

[Wolfgang Baer]

Hi Yann,

Yann Dirson wrote:
[...]
> 
> $ /usr/bin/jar
> bash: /usr/bin/jar: Too many levels of symbolic links
> 
> I stumbled upon [1] which explains why the limit is so low and is not
> likely to be raised.
> 
> But is there any reason to have 2 alternatives involved in accessing
> kaffe binaries ?  

Yes, the reason is that kaffe provides 3 different systems (jthreads,
pthreads and pthreads-profile (i386 only currently)) which can be
installed together and be switched by the alternative system via
/etc/alternatives/kaffe-system.

I see your point and you are right that there are 5 link dereferences
involved to get the real command.

Current situation is:

/usr/bin/jar -> /etc/alternatives/jar
/etc/alternatives/jar -> /usr/lib/kaffe/bin/jar
/usr/lib/kaffe/bin/jar -> /usr/lib/kaffe/.system/bin/jar
where /usr/lib/kaffe/.system -> /etc/alternatives/kaffe-system
/etc/alternatives/kaffe-system -> /usr/lib/kaffe/{jthreads,pthreads}

This is just an idea and I don't know if this is allowed:

/usr/bin/jar -> /etc/alternatives/jar
/etc/alternatives/jar -> /etc/alternatives/kaffe-system/bin/jar
/etc/alternatives/kaffe-system -> /usr/lib/kaffe/{jthreads,pthreads}

This would only need 3 dereferences. Is it allowed to link an
alternative to another alternative ?

I will discuss this with the other package maintainers.

Regards,

Wolfgang