[gentoo-dev] ebuild dependency question

[gentoo-dev] ebuild dependency question

[Craig Joly]

I'm working on an ebuild for gaby and I've got some dependancy
questions.  gaby has several optional features.  I looked at debian
and they simply make everything a dependancy.  The ebuild system gives
us quite a bit more flexibility.

The details:
	- supports gnome or vanilla gtk+ interface
	- optional python support (recommended)
	- optional libxml support (recommended)
	- optional imlib support
	- optional gdk-pixbuf support
	- optional EsounD support
	- optional libglade support
	- python and libxml support are required for printing
	- imlib or gdk-pixbuf, not both
	- if you use python support, pygtk is recommended
	- optional nls

gnome, esd and nls are easy.  Just check USE flags in make.conf.

Since there's no imlib or gdk-pixbuf USE flags, I don't consider them
a dependency and let the ./configure script decide.
Same with libglade support - build it if ./configure can find it.

Python is where things get complicated.  IMO, printing should be
included by default, so python and libxml should be dependencies
(ignoring the USE python flag).

And lastly, let ./configure handle pygtk.


What do you think?  Does this fit with the Gentoo philisophy?

Thanks
Craig

Re: [gentoo-dev] ebuild dependency question

[Daniel Robbins]

On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 09:07:20PM -0600, Craig Joly wrote:
> I'm working on an ebuild for gaby and I've got some dependancy
> questions.  gaby has several optional features.  I looked at debian
> and they simply make everything a dependancy.  The ebuild system gives
> us quite a bit more flexibility.
> 
> The details:
> 	- supports gnome or vanilla gtk+ interface
> 	- optional python support (recommended)
> 	- optional libxml support (recommended)
> 	- optional imlib support
> 	- optional gdk-pixbuf support
> 	- optional EsounD support
> 	- optional libglade support
> 	- python and libxml support are required for printing
> 	- imlib or gdk-pixbuf, not both
> 	- if you use python support, pygtk is recommended
> 	- optional nls
> 
> gnome, esd and nls are easy.  Just check USE flags in make.conf.

Yep; enable if they are set, disable if they aren't.  Normally, this is done
by adding a --with-feature if it is disabled by default and USE is set, and
adding a --without-feature if it is enabled by default and USE isn't set.

> Since there's no imlib or gdk-pixbuf USE flags, I don't consider them
> a dependency and let the ./configure script decide.
> Same with libglade support - build it if ./configure can find it.

We can't let the ./configure script decide since it leads to inconsistent .tbz2
packages (things will be different depending on what system it's built on.)  I
would use gdk-pixbuf by default; it's newer, and imlib seems to be gradually
becoming obsolete.

> Python is where things get complicated.  IMO, printing should be
> included by default, so python and libxml should be dependencies
> (ignoring the USE python flag).

Anything that's *required* for proper functioning of an ebuild should ignore
USE variables; you are correct.  For example, the gnome-base/gnome ebuild will
work the same whether or not you have "gnome" set, as it should.  USE is only
for optional build-time functionality; anything required, and most things that
are recommended, are included by default.

> And lastly, let ./configure handle pygtk.

pygtk is recommended if you are including python support, which you are.  So
include pygtk by default as well.  Again, we can't let ./configure decide.

> What do you think?  Does this fit with the Gentoo philisophy?

Almost perfect; the Gentoo philosophy is to give users choice, but also balance
this with the fact that fully functional and feature-rich packages are
generally best.  In the end, the philosophy is to design the ebuild so that
everyone can have gabby exactly as they like it.

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
Chief Architect/President			http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.			

Re: [gentoo-dev] ebuild dependency question

[Mikael Hallendal]

Hi!

> > Since there's no imlib or gdk-pixbuf USE flags, I don't consider
> >them a dependency and let the ./configure script decide.  Same with
> >libglade support - build it if ./configure can find it.
> 
> We can't let the ./configure script decide since it leads to
> inconsistent .tbz2 packages (things will be different depending on
> what system it's built on.)  I would use gdk-pixbuf by default; it's
> newer, and imlib seems to be gradually becoming obsolete.

I'm not sure if every project is switching to gdk-pixbuf. I know that
the GNOME project are making Imlib obsolete in favor of
gdk-pixbuf. What I've done in other ebuilds are to (for now) use the
gnome USE-flag for this descision. If gnome is set, use gdk-pixbuf
instead of Imlib. For now I think this is valid but that will probably
change in the future if more projects switch to gdk-pixbuf. 

Regards, 
Mikael Hallendal

-- 
Mikael Hallendal                micke@codefactory.se
CodeFactory AB                  http://www.codefactory.se/
Office: +46 (0)8 587 583 05     Cell: +46 (0)709 718 918

Re: [gentoo-dev] ebuild dependency question

[Ben Lutgens]

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On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 11:17:32PM -0600, Daniel Robbins wrote:
>pygtk is recommended if you are including python support, which you are.  So
>include pygtk by default as well.  Again, we can't let ./configure decide.

Aggreed.

And Imlib will eventually be replaced by Imlib2 IIRC.
-- 
Ben Lutgens		
Sistina Software Inc.	
Kernel panic: I have no root and I want to scream

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