Re: [gentoo-dev] [IMPORTANT] server/client USE flags

[Troy Dack <troy@tkdack.com>]

On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 10:20, Marius Mauch wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> currently we have a lot of packages in the portage tree that provide
> both server and client implementations of a package, big things like
> mysql and samba but also small stuff like telnet-bsd. Often people don't
> need the server part of these packages, but currently there is no way to
> disable them. Some packages have splitted the package, but this is IMO
> not a good idea in general, as often the ebuilds are the same except for
> one or two commands.
> So my idea (as well as others) is to add a new "server" USE flag that
> controls wether the server part of a package is build. This idea is
> outlined in more details on bug 12499, which also had the idea of a
> "client" USE flag, so that it's possible to only build the libs or only
> the server, however I think that such a flag will create more problems
> than benefits (see the bug for explanations).
> So, I'd like to get some opinions/comments from people on this idea, as
> this is coming up about every month and there wasn't really any action
> to solve this issue.
> 
> Marius

I like this idea, it makes sense and seems more logical than a client
USE flag.

I think that a *big fat notice* in /etc/make.conf should be included
just above the USE=... line though, something like:

# If you intend to use this machine as a server and require both
# client/server portions of packages like mysql or samba installed then
# ensure that you include  "server"  in your USE flags below.

Hopefully this will go some way to reducing all the "I emerged samba but
didn't get smbd/nmbd" bugs that are likely to come about.

A GWN or simply a News item as well as a post to gentoo-announce should
be made when this is implemented in the ebuilds.

-- 
Troy Dack					http://linux.tkdack.com
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