3 ms·

I am sure I could go find out, but just asking here for posterity... I feel like linux distros are going down dark paths. I have had figlet on my computer for m

I am sure I could go find out, but just asking here for posterity... I feel like linux distros are going down dark paths. I have had figlet on my computer for many years, and on this distro for at least two years. TheDong notes that Toilet is another really cool tool. I install it on my Linux Mint box here, and boom, figlet is not only removed, but it now links to toilet: ls -l /usr/bin/figlet lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Oct 29 08:15 /usr/bin/figlet -> /etc/alternatives/figlet ls -l /etc/alternatives/figlet lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Oct 29 08:15 /etc/alternatives/figlet -> /usr/bin/figlet-toilet Note the dates on the above, the fact is that I have had figlet on this computer for at least two years, but I just did an apt-get install toilet and it replaced figlet. ls -l /usr/bin/toilet -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 23064 Mar 13 2018 /usr/bin/toilet And the figlet --help gives toilet output and the output is from toilet. I had to remove toilet and re-install figlet to get figlet back. I feel that is odd behaviour for a distro.

mnw21cam 6y ago
I don't know about Mint, but over here on Debian, figlet and toilet suggest each other. So, if you install figlet, then install toilet too, figlet won't actually be uninstalled, but the alternatives mechanism may decide that toilet is better at being figlet than figlet is. You can undoubtedly restore sanity using the update-alternatives command.
- richardwhiuk 6y ago
  toilet requires figlet for fonts, figlet only suggests toilet, and by default apt installs recommends, but not suggests AIUI
antisol 6y ago
Are you sure that it removed figlet, and didn't just change the config in the alternatives system? I have both installed on 16.04. Try: $ sudo update-alternatives --config figlet I have two choices: /usr/bin/figlet-figlet and /usr/bin/figlet-toilet to see what package provides each binary: $ dpkg -S /usr/bin/figlet-figlet figlet: /usr/bin/figlet-figlet $ dpkg -S /usr/bin/figlet-toilet toilet: /usr/bin/figlet-toilet you should be able to choose figlet-figlet with update-alternatives if you want to use real figlet. But IIRC toilet is intended to be 100% backwards compatible, so there's probably not any real reason to do that (?). Or, you should be able to invoke figlet with 'figlet-figlet' on the CLI. ...assuming, of course, that my assumption is correct and it didn't actually remove figlet... :)

mnw21cam 6y ago

I don't know about Mint, but over here on Debian, figlet and toilet suggest each other. So, if you install figlet, then install toilet too, figlet won't actually be uninstalled, but the alternatives mechanism may decide that toilet is better at being figlet than figlet is. You can undoubtedly restore sanity using the update-alternatives command.

richardwhiuk 6y ago
toilet requires figlet for fonts, figlet only suggests toilet, and by default apt installs recommends, but not suggests AIUI

antisol 6y ago

Are you sure that it removed figlet, and didn't just change the config in the alternatives system? I have both installed on 16.04. Try: $ sudo update-alternatives --config figlet I have two choices: /usr/bin/figlet-figlet and /usr/bin/figlet-toilet to see what package provides each binary: $ dpkg -S /usr/bin/figlet-figlet figlet: /usr/bin/figlet-figlet $ dpkg -S /usr/bin/figlet-toilet toilet: /usr/bin/figlet-toilet you should be able to choose figlet-figlet with update-alternatives if you want to use real figlet. But IIRC toilet is intended to be 100% backwards compatible, so there's probably not any real reason to do that (?). Or, you should be able to invoke figlet with 'figlet-figlet' on the CLI. ...assuming, of course, that my assumption is correct and it didn't actually remove figlet... :)