Updates-alternatives slaves support

[bioinfornatics]

Summary

Dear,

alternatives module seems to not support yet slaves

as records with --install we can use --slave

Usage:

update-alternatives  --help
Usage: update-alternatives [<option> ...] <command>

Commands:
  --install <link> <name> <path> <priority>
    [--slave <link> <name> <path>] ...
                           add a group of alternatives to the system.
  --remove <name> <path>   remove <path> from the <name> group alternative.
  --remove-all <name>      remove <name> group from the alternatives system.
  --auto <name>            switch the master link <name> to automatic mode.
  --display <name>         display information about the <name> group.
  --query <name>           machine parseable version of --display <name>.
  --list <name>            display all targets of the <name> group.
  --get-selections         list master alternative names and their status.
  --set-selections         read alternative status from standard input.
  --config <name>          show alternatives for the <name> group and ask the
                           user to select which one to use.
  --set <name> <path>      set <path> as alternative for <name>.
  --all                    call --config on all alternatives.

<link> is the symlink pointing to /etc/alternatives/<name>.
  (e.g. /usr/bin/pager)
<name> is the master name for this link group.
  (e.g. pager)
<path> is the location of one of the alternative target files.
  (e.g. /usr/bin/less)
<priority> is an integer; options with higher numbers have higher priority in
  automatic mode.

Options:
  --altdir <directory>     change the alternatives directory.
  --admindir <directory>   change the administrative directory.
  --instdir <directory>    change the installation directory.
  --root <directory>       change the filesystem root directory.
  --log <file>             change the log file.
  --force                  allow replacing files with alternative links.
  --skip-auto              skip prompt for alternatives correctly configured
                           in automatic mode (relevant for --config only)
  --quiet                  quiet operation, minimal output.
  --verbose                verbose operation, more output.
  --debug                  debug output, way more output.
  --help                   show this help message.
  --version                show the version.

Thanks

Issue Type

Feature Idea

Component Name

alternatives

Additional Information

Can you add this feature as example with dict structure

alternatives:
  name: 'foo'
  link: '/usr/local/bin/foo'
  path: '/opt/foo/1.0/bin/foo'
  slaves:
    - { 'name': 'foo_png', '/usr/local/pixmaps/foo.png' , 'path':  '/opt/foo/1.0/foo.png' }

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the Ansible Code of Conduct

[ansibullbot]

Files identified in the description:

• plugins/cache/yaml.py
• plugins/modules/system/alternatives.py

If these files are inaccurate, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

click here for bot help

[ansibullbot]

cc @bcoca @mulby
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[ansibullbot]

Files identified in the description:

• plugins/modules/system/alternatives.py

If these files are incorrect, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

click here for bot help

[fredizzimo]

There was a pull request in the ansible repository that added this ansible/ansible#52732. But it doesn't support changing the slaves once they are set. On the other hand, the priority also stays fixed after initially set, so maybe that's intended?

[bioinfornatics]

yes that seems a good thing.
If you have to update the slave part, you have to uninstall and install the alternatives
To my understanding update-aletrnativescommand line tool do not support to updates only the slaves part so the features proposed seems good to me

[chriscroome]

For what it's worth I've just written an alternatives role which does have "slaves" support (it uses ansible.builtin.command: update-alternatives --install) -- however once the community.general.alternatives module has is released with subcommands support I'll probably update it to use this.