/usr/local/bin/highlight makes /usr/bin/highlight unusable

[tpraxl]

Mint version:

Linux Mint 18.3 'Sylvia'

Problem:

The program highlight of the package highlight is not usable when ommitting the path.

The path of /usr/local/bin/highlight (mintsystem highlight) has precedence over /usr/bin/highlight (highlight package) if you simply invoke highlight. This affects at least the filemanager ranger, whose scope.sh uses highlight without specifying a path.

How to reproduce

Highlight itself

Install highlight and try to use it:

$ sudo apt-get install highlight
$ # The following command will hang, because it represents the mintsystem highlight script, which waits for input
$ highlight --syntax=bash --out-format=ansi /usr/local/bin/highlight
$ # will not hang, because it represents the original program
$ /usr/bin/highlight --syntax=bash --out-format=ansi /usr/local/bin/highlight

Ranger

$ sudo apt-get install ranger highlight
$ # create basic ~/.config/ranger files
$ # notice that simple text files are previewed in the 3rd column
$ ranger 
$ # copy /etc/ranger/ configuration files (includes scope.sh) to ~/.config/ranger/
$ ranger --copy-config=all
$ # the following call will no longer preview simple text files
$ ranger

Affected packages:

• highlight
• ranger

The filemanager ranger will fail to preview text files after the recommended ranger --copy-config=all or ranger --copy-config=scope (as soon as ~/.config/ranger/scope.sh exists, which is configured to be used for previews in /etc/ranger/config/rc.conf resp. ~/.config/ranger/rc.conf.

Temporary workaround for ranger

$ # will replace the wrapped highlight command with /usr/bin/highlight in the scope script
$ sed -i 's/command highlight/command \/usr\/bin\/highlight/' ~/.config/ranger/scope.sh

Proposal for clean solution:

Rename /usr/local/bin/highlight to /usr/local/bin/highlight-mint.

[Edit] replaced wrong path /usr/local/ with /usr/local/bin/