Cannot set cpp alternatives link

[Miren Radia]

Copied from my Ubuntu answers question:

After starting the interactive docker container on my host machine using

docker container run -it ubuntu:noble /bin/bash

I ran the following commands

1. apt update
2. apt install cpp
3. update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/cpp cpp /usr/bin/cpp-13 13

I get the following output from the last command

update-alternatives: renaming cpp link from /lib/cpp to /usr/bin/cpp
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/cpp-13 to provide /usr/bin/cpp (cpp) in auto mode
update-alternatives: error: cannot stat file '/etc/alternatives/cpp': Too many levels of symbolic links

The link /usr/bin/cpp also no longer exists.

The above commands work fine in the Ubuntu 22.04 docker container (well with cpp-11).