alternatives – Manages alternative programs for common commands

Synopsis

• Manages symbolic links using the ‘update-alternatives’ tool.
• Useful when multiple programs are installed but provide similar functionality (e.g. different editors).

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

• update-alternatives

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
link path		The path to the symbolic link that should point to the real executable. This option is always required on RHEL-based distributions. On Debian-based distributions this option is required when the alternative name is unknown to the system.
name string / required		The generic name of the link.
path path / required		The path to the real executable that the link should point to.
priority integer	Default: 50	The priority of the alternative.

Examples

- name: Correct java version selected
  alternatives:
    name: java
    path: /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java

- name: Alternatives link created
  alternatives:
    name: hadoop-conf
    link: /etc/hadoop/conf
    path: /etc/hadoop/conf.ansible

- name: Make java 32 bit an alternative with low priority
  alternatives:
    name: java
    path: /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java
    priority: -10

Status

• This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
• This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

Authors

• David Wittman (@DavidWittman)
• Gabe Mulley (@mulby)

Hint

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