Using The Debian Alternatives System

“There are several cases where two packages provide two
different versions of a program, both of which provide the same
core functionality. Users might prefer one over another out of
habit, or because the user interface of one package is somehow more
pleasing than the interface of another. Other users on the same
system might make a different choice.

“For example, there might exist two different versions of
newsreaders on a system. Which program is invoked is determined by
a link pointing from a file with the virtual package name
/etc/alternatives/vim to the selected file, e.g.,
/usr/bin/vim.gtk.

“The Debian system has mechanism to install somewhat overlapping
programs peacefully using update-alternatives(8). The Perl script
update-alternatives provides a way of ensuring that all the files
associated with a specified package are selected as a system
default.”

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