emacs and /etc/alternatives

[John Dennis]

On Fri, 2007-03-09 at 18:27 +0000, Andrew Haley wrote:
> John Dennis writes:
>  > No, you're missing the point. This is not about rpmlint, the issue is
>  > two packages cannot own the same file.
> 
> I thought they could, as long as the files were the identical.  And,
> at the present time, the file /usr/bin/emacs does not cause a
> conflict.

Is that true? Files are not considered conflicts by RPM if they are
identical?

If two packages own the same file is RPM smart enough to not remove the
file until no package owns it?

What happens when multiple packages own the same file, but one of the
packages which owns the file is newly installed/updated and it changes
the file as compared to the other owners? Sounds to me like a recipe for
problems.

Note, I'm not saying this would happen in the emacs case, just that it
sounds like a mine field in general. BTW, multiple owners of directories
is another issue altogether.
-- 
John Dennis <jdennis at redhat.com>