Matt basically gave you the example command:
alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/local/java/bin/java 3
Perhaps you should re-read my question. His command is what prompted my interest primarily because immediately following his command I checked the results with --display which provides interesting results. after running --config and selecting the sun java pack on my test machine, I noticed that several of the slave values were not set in either case, and the final line is what really caught my eye. "Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java" which I am left to assume is because the gcj version has more slave values set than my sun java install. Slaves are not particularly well covered in the manpage and using the gcj links as an example doesn't seem to work. I'd like to carry this to a new thread, to avoid information being lost in this one, as it's moved well off topic from a java install.
Now just re-apply the same logic to _all_ java-related files in /etc/alternatives. Hit "man 1 alternatives" when in doubt.
There is no man 1 alternatives. alternatives is provided by chkconfig and only has man (8) associated with it as 'man -k alternatives' shows.
P.S. AFAICT, I was the _first_ person to catch the original poster not realizing that /usr/bin/java was GCJ (while everyone else largely ignored the CGJ issue, and gave "install blah" until Matt's latter post): http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2005-August/009470.html
Here's your cookie.
**P.P.S. Java, like Perl and other development systems, is one area where "Emerge" might be a better way to do things -- both legally and technically. I.e., the ports tree could handle the administrative end, while fetching the JRE/JDK directly from Sun.
While you have provided some invaluable information to the list, we're wandering way off topic again. This has nothing to do with Matt's current(or recently past) jre install, or with my query on the alternatives framework. This is more of an RFE/implementation discussion that's moot for all current RHEL/CentOS platforms. Yes. I'm blunt, borderline arrogant, and generally antisocial, but at least I stay on topic with my hostility.
-- Jim Perrin System Administrator - UIT Ft Gordon & US Army Signal Center