From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: <rotund@fatnsoft.com> X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on finch.gentoo.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=DMARC_MISSING, MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 Received: from server11.safepages.com (server11.safepages.com [216.127.146.25]) by chiba.3jane.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 784EF20AB14A; Fri, 22 Mar 2002 11:27:52 -0600 (CST) Received: from 91-pool3.ras10.ilchi.tii-dial.net (91-pool3.ras10.ilchi.tii-dial.net [206.250.226.91]) by server11.safepages.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id EFB5B14F69C; Fri, 22 Mar 2002 17:22:49 +0000 (GMT) From: Joe Tennies <rotund@fatnsoft.com> To: gentoo-user@gentoo.org, gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Evolution/1.0.2- Date: 22 Mar 2002 11:19:15 -0600 Message-Id: <1016817557.13452.16.camel@joe.fatnsoft.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: [gentoo-dev] Emerge/qpkg suggestions Sender: gentoo-dev-admin@gentoo.org Errors-To: gentoo-dev-admin@gentoo.org X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.6 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org List-Help: <mailto:gentoo-dev-request@gentoo.org?subject=help> List-Post: <mailto:gentoo-dev@gentoo.org> List-Subscribe: <http://lists.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev>, <mailto:gentoo-dev-request@gentoo.org?subject=subscribe> List-Id: Gentoo Linux developer list <gentoo-dev.gentoo.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev>, <mailto:gentoo-dev-request@gentoo.org?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://lists.gentoo.org/pipermail/gentoo-dev/> X-Archives-Salt: 5ace4166-2495-416e-a39e-d55f5bad49bc X-Archives-Hash: 4e72db185cedd7df70f90a4dfec08b03 I've been using Gentoo for a couple months now. Let me just say "I LOVE IT!" It is by far the fastest running Linux system I've had. I also love that it is typically pretty up-to-date on packages. I do have a couple concerns though. Hopefully my concerns have not been dealt with, and I just haven't realized how to do these things yet. Here's my list of suggestions: * A --use-flags on either emerge or qpkg. This would display which flags are used by a .ebuild. Then you can tell what things MAY be built into a package. (For instance, I probably DON'T need 10 programs to display AVIs.) * A simple way to do a per package enable/disable of certain USE flags when you build a program. (I like something like +avi -qt or something like that, but I don't think it would work with the way it is set up.) Perhaps a way to deal the second issue is a --interactive or --set-use flag on emerge. The way this would work is to display all the flags used by a package and their default values. Then give the user the option to change them for that particular package. You could then do this for each package you are emerging. (Note: this would take place after checking dependencies, but before ANY package gets emerged. You would do ALL these at the beginning.) I only see one real problem with this. If one sets a value to the non-default one and then emerges a new version of that package but does not set that value to the same value, this can lead to a difficult time hunting down what changed (as things may be broken). This could be remedied by storing the flags used within the /var/db/pkg region. This may also be useful for things that depend on another package but requires it to have something else built into it. (I hope that made some sense... at least the ability to understand what I'm thinking.)