> After some experiencies with emerge, it could be great that to
> do an emerge with USE interactive:
> 
> $ emerge -I php
> >>> ...
> Use Java [Y/n]?
> Use X[y/N] ?
> ....

This is an interesting idea, but can cause a lot of problems... It
has potential after 2.1 is released, but I don't recommend doing
things this way right now.

If you merge applications without a specific flag for a dependent
package, and then merge a package with that specific flag, it may
very well assume that the support you requested is there.  Little
errors may creep up on you. While this should be fairly harmless,
it might be a little annoying.

Portage will gain a lot more support for SLOTS, USE, and keywords
in the 2.1 series. It'll actually allow dependence based on a USE
setting and the child's build settings. It will remember them for
future emerges on a per-package basis as well.

> I join the script, its name is emerge-interactive, this is in
> fact the emerge script with my modifications (line 1840 to 1877)

If you make modifications to portage, I'd really appreciate it if
you would post patches on bugs.gentoo.org. It'll give me a chance
to look the changes over and give feedback as well as consider it
for integration into portage. (diff -u, greatly prefered)

> This is my first gentoo and linux contribution so I'm waiting for
> some feedback, impression, and sure critiques and amelioration
> (this is the first time I script in python, so be indulgent !!)

This one in particular I'd rather see as a front-end instead of a
direct integration like this. Sticky flags (which will show up in
2.1) will feed from the command line and will have a lot of rules
regarding how use flags are set for a session.  This method steps
around portage's ability to determine Sticky (persistant, limited
flags set for specific packages) flags. It might end up causing a
lot of rebuilding due to global use flag changes.

If you continue with integrating it, just make sure you follow the
code changes that are coming up this summer, and perhaps it might
be adopted in one form or another.

--NJ