/etc/alternatives

[Ryan Golhar]

I installed the java SDK RPM from java.sun.com.

Recently, however, I noticed that /usr/bin/java, /usr/bin/javac, and
/usr/bin/jar point to scripts in /etc/alternatives.

I figured out that these replacements are from libgcj.  It doesn't look
like I can until this other RPM as there are others that depend on it.
My question is why do they replace a legitimate program (java) with a
script that doesn't do anything.  That just seems to break everything.
I remove the link so the real java program is picked up correctly.  Does
anyone know what this is for and why its done?

-----
Ryan Golhar
Computational Biologist
The Informatics Institute at
The University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ

Phone: 973-972-5034
Fax: 973-972-7412
Email: golharam at umdnj.edu