Re: [gentoo-dev] USE settings for specific apps

[Gontran <gontran@gontran.net>]

* Tom von Schwerdtner (tvon@etria.org) wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
>     Some people have suggested that they would like to be able to set some
> USE variables for specific apps.....examples escape me, but I know it has
> been brought up.
> 
>     Anyways, I was thinking something along these lines would work:
> 
> ----
> # Global settings
> USE = "this that other etc"
> 
> # App specific
> USE-mozilla = "!this !that foo"
> ----
> 
> Basicaly, the syntax would be "USE-<appname>".  This portion should be
> simple enough to impliment, however the variables pose more of a problem
> since you dont want to have to repeat all of the normal USE settings for a
> specific app and most of the time you just want to specify a USE setting not
> to use (hence the !'s).  Special vars might be good here too, like
> "defaults" to inherit all the global USE settings...or "no-defaults" to
> ignore them all...
> 
> .....thats the general idea....comments?

Hey Tom,

I've heard these requests too; however, adding more complexity doesn't
seem, to me, like the thing to do.  Why not the user read the ebuild prior
to emerging, and modify her USE variables to taste?  I thought this was
standard practice, in fact.

The current state encourages ebuild reading prior to merging, understanding
of how Portage works, and maintains existing elegance.  

More practically, would it even be feasable to add such a feature to
Portage at this stage in its lifecycle?

Very Best Regards,
Gontran