Arch Linux User Repository

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on the issue.

I opened an issue: https://github.com/austinjones/tab-rs/issues/241

I agree, contacting upstream is probably the way forward.

Initial testing shows that the completions won't be correct for at least ZSH, probably for all shells. It's not the end of the world, but it's not ideal. I think an upstream change would be required to fix this.

Given the situation, I'm going to suggest that if you want this change you should modify the PKGBUILD yourself and install it. I think that the default package should not break shell completions in order to avoid conflict with another package.

This patch is what I've been testing:

diff --git a/PKGBUILD b/PKGBUILD
index 5a24393..b27f887 100644
--- a/PKGBUILD
+++ b/PKGBUILD
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 pkgname=tab-rs
 pkgver=0.5.1
 epoch=1
-pkgrel=1
+pkgrel=2
 pkgdesc="The intuitive config-driven terminal multiplexer"
 arch=('x86_64')
 url="https://github.com/austinjones/tab-rs"
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ depends=('gcc-libs')
 makedepends=('cargo')
 checkdepends=('cargo')
 provides=('tab-rs')
-conflicts=('tab-rs-git' 'tab')
+conflicts=('tab-rs-git')
 source=($pkgname-$pkgver.tar.gz::$url/archive/v$pkgver.tar.gz)

 build() {
@@ -27,11 +27,11 @@ check() {
 package() {
        cd $pkgname-$pkgver

-       install -Dm 755 target/release/tab -t $pkgdir/usr/bin
+       install -Dm 755 target/release/tab $pkgdir/usr/bin/tab-rs
        install -Dm 644 LICENSE -t $pkgdir/usr/share/licenses/$pkgname

-       install -Dm 644 tab/src/completions/bash/tab.bash $pkgdir/usr/share/bash-completion/completions/tab
-       install -Dm 644 tab/src/completions/zsh/_tab $pkgdir/usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_tab
-       install -Dm 644 tab/src/completions/fish/tab.fish $pkgdir/usr/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/tab.fish
+       install -Dm 644 tab/src/completions/bash/tab.bash $pkgdir/usr/share/bash-completion/completions/tab-rs
+       install -Dm 644 tab/src/completions/zsh/_tab $pkgdir/usr/share/zsh/site-functions/_tab-rs
+       install -Dm 644 tab/src/completions/fish/tab.fish $pkgdir/usr/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/tab-rs.fish

Yes, it's a pity they didn't do a proper redirection.

I'm excited to seee if the whole thing works when tab has been renamed to tab-rs, or if the other binaries also expect to be rename.

Ah, interesting. Strange that the http link fails entirely. Well, in that situation and given that I haven't found any advice against it, I'll create a new package release that renames the binary to tab-rs.

Right. English isn't my native language, so I chose a wrong word when using "prescedence". What I meant was that tab-rs, by conflicting with tab, "pretends" (or whatever word you want to use) to have the right to "claim" /usr/bin/tab.

Anyway, the tab programming language is not as dead as you presume — you just need to swap HTTP for HTTPS to go to the right URL: https://tkatchev.bitbucket.io/tab/

I wouldn't say that it takes precedence over a prior package. It's simply not possible to install both at the same time without modifying the name scheme of upstream. I don't know what the precedents are for such renaming, so I'll try to look into it.

Technically speaking it would be easy enough to install the binary as tab-rs, but I don't know what side effects this might have.

Additionally, I've just done some research on the tab package. The upstream url is dead, and the package has been flagged out of date for several months. I think that given the circumstances of that package, I'm going to leave the name on this one at least until that package is resurrected.

@jeffw I find it unreasonable that a new package from November 2020 takes precedence over a package that was submitted in January 2016, and that the two otherwise related packages cannot be installed side-by-side.

IMO, /usr/bin/tab in this (i.e., tab-rs) package ought to be renamed to /usr/bin/tab-rs and the PKGBUILD should make the user aware of this fact. Although I haven't tried, the rest of the binaries most likely don't have any name collisions.

(It's presumptious of the author of tab-rs to assume that a three-letter name — a rather commom word, even — hasn't already been taken here in 2020, but that's not your fault.)

Looks like there is a conflicting package installed (tab from the AUR, I think). I've added a conflict with that package with the latest package update.