How to fix "No such file or directory" when adding application with alternatives in Linux

When running the command

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/jar jar /usr/java/latest/bin/jar 20000

in Linux I get the error

failed to read link /usr/bin/jar: No such file or directory

How can I fix this?

Solution 1:

It turns out the fix is to run the following commands:

sudo rm /usr/bin/jar
sudo rm /var/lib/alternatives/jar
sudo alternatives --install /usr/bin/jar jar /usr/java/latest/bin/jar 20000

you can confirm that the steps above worked with:

which jar

I'd say that those steps are pretty generic and could be used for other alternative applications too.

See http://johnglotzer.blogspot.com/2012/09/alternatives-install-gets-stuck-failed.html for more information.