9.1 The Model
A role is a virtual name several installed packages may contend to own on the filesystem, with at most one holding it. The holder's file answers the contended path through a symlink peipkg owns.
Two registry daemons can be installed at once; only one of them is
/usr/bin/registryd.
The declarations are specified in PSPU §5.23. What follows is what peipkg does with them.
9.1.1 The pieces #
A role has one or more slots, each materialising one filesystem name. A slot's claim paths are where the links appear; a target is the holder's file each link points at.
The claim-path set for a slot is the union of every installed consumer's declared path for it, plus the holder's own provider-declared default path if it has one. The materialised links are the cross-product of that set with the holder's targets.
9.1.2 Links are relative #
A claim link's body is a relative path, computed from the link's
location to the target: a link at /usr/bin/registryd pointing at
/usr/sbin/loregd is written as ../sbin/loregd.
Only the database keeps the absolute logical target. Anything reading the link itself — an auditor, an unrelated tool — sees the relative form.
The reason is relocatability. A root assembled by the composer, or installed under an alternate root, or packed into an initramfs archive, is moved around before it is ever booted. An absolute link body would point outside it.
9.1.3 Links belong to peipkg #
A claim link is owned by the package manager, not by any package. It never appears in a package's payload and is never recorded as a package-owned path.
That is what lets two eligible providers coexist: neither ships the contended path, so the one-package-per-path rule is never engaged by the providers themselves.