On czw, 2017-08-03 at 11:33 -0400, Mike Gilbert wrote:
> I would like to remove the ban on variable references in the HOMEPAGE
> variable in ebuilds.
> 
> As I understand it, this ban was put in place so that people can
> easily copy/paste from an ebuild to a web browser.
> 
> If people want to copy/paste the URL, they can easily query the final
> value using the portage API, or a tool written against it.

I object! Portage API does not work conveniently for ebuilds scattered
all over the place, or visible through gitweb.

In fact, I would like to request an opposite motion: I would like to ban
all constant-value variable references unless they give a *very* large
measurable benefit.

I'm really tired of people who try hard to replace everything with
a variable when it doesn't give any benefit. It only means that:

- when reviewing multiple ebuilds, I constantly need to look at PN to
figure out whether someone didn't screw up the vars,

- things are not suitable for straightforward copy-paste for testing,

- everything falls apart when someone renames the package (either us or
upstream). In particular, it becomes PITA to figure out which ${PN}
represent the upstream name, and which ones strictly refer to the
package name.

In other words:

a. P/PV/PF are acceptable because versions change frequently,

b. PN might be acceptable when used for MY_P and so on,

c. no variables in HOMEPAGE, EGIT_REPO_URI, constant part of SRC_URI
(so I could at least open the directory containing the file),

d. no random ${PN} all over the install phase.

> Allowing variables in HOMEPAGE would allow for easier copying of
> similar/identical ebuilds. For example, see the trivial ebuilds in my
> overlay below.
> 
> https://bitbucket.org/floppym/floppym-overlay/src/8b55fab291ec1f9be93ade9c91e7d62d7b8a259d/dev-go/cloudflare-go/cloudflare-go-0.7.4.ebuild
> 
> https://bitbucket.org/floppym/floppym-overlay/src/8b55fab291ec1f9be93ade9c91e7d62d7b8a259d/dev-go/pkg-errors/pkg-errors-0.8.0.ebuild
> 
> https://bitbucket.org/floppym/floppym-overlay/src/8b55fab291ec1f9be93ade9c91e7d62d7b8a259d/dev-go/urfave-cli/urfave-cli-1.19.1.ebuild

Laziness shouldn't be an excuse to make things worse. You can write
yourself a tool that puts correct values there.

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny