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alternatives - Manages alternative programs for common commands

New in version 1.6.

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
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
required
The generic name of the link.
path
required
The path to the real executable that the link should point to.
priority
(added in 2.2)
 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 flagged as preview which means that it is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface.

Maintenance

This module is flagged as community which means that it is maintained by the Ansible Community. See Module Maintenance & Support for more info.

For a list of other modules that are also maintained by the Ansible Community, see here.

Author

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

Hint

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