From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on finch.gentoo.org X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.1 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_NXDOMAIN,DMARC_NONE, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RDNS_DYNAMIC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 Received: from taipan.mudshark.org (100.209-115-231-0.interbaun.com [209.115.231.100]) by chiba.3jane.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id D4EB3AC482 for ; Thu, 18 Jul 2002 10:10:57 -0500 (CDT) Received: from dante.taipan.mudshark.org (dante.taipan.mudshark.org [192.168.1.2]) by taipan.mudshark.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8A67E4F00 for ; Thu, 18 Jul 2002 08:58:06 -0600 (MDT) Received: by dante.taipan.mudshark.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id D21388EC7C4; Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:05:28 -0600 (MDT) Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:05:28 -0600 From: Craig Joly To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Message-ID: <20020718150528.GA25187@dante.taipan.mudshark.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i Subject: [gentoo-dev] Portage2 super USE flag suggestin 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 List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Gentoo Linux developer list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: X-Archives-Salt: 2acae277-16e9-4283-bdca-98b58aaaed78 X-Archives-Hash: e4275b4c13debe4ac9789e0fa93c1fc0 A complaint that I've seen in the comments section of every single Gentoo review is "I tried to emerge VIM on my server and it wants to install X. Gentoo sucks!" or something along those lines. At first, the answer seems obvious: USE="-X" emerge vim It doesn't work, unless you happen to have the rest of your USE flags set exactly right. When you look at the dependancies in the ebuild, you find that it also can depend on gtk. All right: USE="-X -gtk" emerge vim Still wants to install X. Now, we start digging. And discover that python is causing the problem because it can depend on tcltk, which depends on X. USE="-X -gtk -tcltk" emerge vim This should work in all cases. As far as I can tell. Same problem with nethack and a few other programs. It's not a big deal for those of us who are willing to dig through all of the ebuilds looking for a stray dependency, just a pain in the ass, but it really sucks for new users who just want to set up a server. A possible solution: super USE flags, for want of a better name. Something along the lines of USE="noX", where noX=-X -gtk -gtk2 -qt -qtmt -tcltk -fltk -gnome -gnome-libs -kde -bonobo -xv -dga (any other toolkits, etc) nodb=-postgres -mysql -berkdb -gdbm -innodb (any other databases) nosound=-als -oss -esd -arts -oggvorbis (any other sound stuff) nofb=-directfb fbcon noscript=-perl -python -ruby -tcltk -guile I think you get the idea. That way, if you want to guarantee installing vim without X support: USE="noX" emerge vim What do you guys think. -- Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.