What does priority mean in `update-alternatives`?

Question

What does priority mean in update-alternatives?

what does a smaller priority value mean？

How is priority related to and different from the default one "*"?

Thanks. For example:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config java
There are 4 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                                           Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java   1061      auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/gij-4.6                                1046      manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java   1061      manual mode
* 3            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-i386/jre/bin/java   1051      manual mode
  4            /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0_67/bin/java               1         manual mode

score 12 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 27 '22 at 20:37

12

From man update-alternatives:

Each alternative has a priority associated with it.  When a link  group  is  in  automatic
mode,  the  alternatives  pointed  to by members of the group will be those which have the
highest priority.

It can be any integer, even negative (see example in manpage).

If the alternative is set manually, priority has no relation to the default.

edited Jun 27 '22 at 20:37

Pablo Bianchi

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answered Dec 10 '18 at 12:09

muru

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9

So the highest the number the highest the priority ? – thanos.a Jun 17 '20 at 19:01
1

@thanos.a I believe yes, because this is way people set 10 for python3.7 priority. – Ibrahim.H Jul 20 '20 at 19:34

What does priority mean in `update-alternatives`?

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