From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on finch.gentoo.org X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.4 required=5.0 tests=DATE_IN_PAST_06_12,DMARC_NONE, INVALID_DATE,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 Received: from mailgw2.netvision.net.il ([194.90.1.9]) by cvs.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 3.30 #1) id 15MpV5-0001JR-00 for gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org; Wed, 18 Jul 2001 05:28:20 -0600 Received: from localhost (ras2-p15.rlz.netvision.net.il [62.0.84.143]) by mailgw2.netvision.net.il (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id OAA02721 for ; Wed, 18 Jul 2001 14:30:58 +0300 (IDT) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" From: Dan Armak To: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.2] Organization: Gentoo Technologies, Inc. MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <01071814294000.00590@localhost> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: [gentoo-dev] Suggestion: DONT_USE flags Sender: gentoo-dev-admin@cvs.gentoo.org Errors-To: gentoo-dev-admin@cvs.gentoo.org X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: gentoo-dev@cvs.gentoo.org List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Gentoo Linux development list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Wed Jul 18 05:29:02 2001 X-Original-Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 14:29:40 +0300 X-Archives-Salt: 403cc192-4ace-4274-9f68-6d0c01aa339b X-Archives-Hash: 0ec99437e618bd697408e90c074bdca2 Hi all, I want to raise the question of the correct usage of USE flags. For example, I'm building an ebuild for a game which can optionally use vorbis and/or smpeg, which provide functionality for playing Vorbis or MP3-format music. Without these, the game can only play .wav files and CDA tracks. Now, there exists a USE vorbis flag. I can depend on this in deciding, in the ebuild, whether to include vorbis support or not. However, if USE vorbis isn't set but Vorbis is already installed, should I use it? A worse situation: there is no smpeg USE flag. I have 4 options: 1. Force usage of smpeg. 2. Use smpeg if it's already installed. 3. Never use smpeg. 4. Create a USE smpeg flag. Option 4 I dismiss. If we create USE flags for every shared library and util which might possibly be used by another package, there will be a hundred falgs or more and a user won't be able to take time to understand the meaning of each and decide on setting it or not. There seems no reason to do option 3. Option 2 might seem to be a good default, but what about option 1? Is there any good reason not to use smpeg, if it takes only 20 mins to d/l and install and adds important functionality? If there is, we should create a DONT_USE smpeg flag :-) There's more to it than that, however. Suppose the user has no Internet cinnection, right now or at all. He may have the ource archives of the game, but not of smpeg. If we make smpeg a required dependency, he won't be able to install without modifying the ebuild. This is why I think that instead of using cumbersome USE flags, we should very simply ask the user (interactively) what optional dependencies he wants. The USE flags would be used as default choices for a non-interactive installation process. I think this is much more simple and elegant than making the user's choices for him! Comments welcome! -- Dan Armak Gentoo Linux Developer Matan, Israel