[gentoo-dev] use.mask'ing and packages in the testing branch

[gentoo-dev] use.mask'ing and packages in the testing branch

[Olivier Fisette]

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Hi,

I have a question about masked USE flags and packages in the 
testing branch. I have a problem with "sci-biology/emboss", a 
sequence analysis package I maintain that was keyworded ~amd64 a 
few days ago. Six packages (containing various genetic and 
biological data) in the tree have optional EMBOSS support that 
may be enabled using the corresponding USE flag. EMBOSS PDEPENDs 
on these six packages, because they are necessary for a complete 
EMBOSS installation but cannot be installed before EMBOSS as 
they have to be indexed using EMBOSS programs.

These six packages in turn depend on EMBOSS, but only if optional 
EMBOSS support is turned on. The reason is these packages may be 
used without EMBOSS (although that is rarely the case, some 
users appreciate that and I do not want to force over 200 
programs on someone just for installing a small amino acid 
properties database).

The end result is that in order to have EMBOSS work on a given 
arch, the six depending packages must also be keyworded, *and* 
the emboss USE flag must be enabled by default. Otherwise, the 
users would be left with the PDEPENDencies built without EMBOSS 
support, and many EMBOSS programs (some of which are very 
important and popular) would be broken.

The problem is that on amd64, the "emboss" USE flag is still 
masked and is not in the default USE flags like it is for other 
arches that support EMBOSS (see bug #105086 [1]). I was told 
that demasking USE flags is only done when packages hit the 
stable branch. (I do not know why and would appreciate an 
explanation.) It also seems that architecture conditional 
dependencies are deprecated. I still believe that unmasking the 
keyword would not break anything since no amd64 stable package 
has optional EMBOSS support and, of course, no such package 
should be stabilised until EMBOSS itself is stable.

The bottom line is EMBOSS is currently keyworded ~amd64 but 
broken on amd64. This is a known bug and should be easy to fix, 
but if we cannot demask the USE flag or use architecture 
conditional dependencies, I really have no idea how to fix this. 

Thoughts or suggestions anyone? 

[1] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105086

-- 
Olivier Fisette (ribosome)
Gentoo Linux Developer
Scientific applications, Developer relations

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Re: [gentoo-dev] use.mask'ing and packages in the testing branch

[Mike Frysinger]

On Wednesday 07 September 2005 01:16 pm, Olivier Fisette wrote:
> I was told
> that demasking USE flags is only done when packages hit the
> stable branch.

this is incorrect

demasking a USE flag only requires you not break packages ... so if your USE 
flag is only used in unstable branches, then it isnt an issue, demask and 
have a ball :P ... but if you have a stable package which has IUSE=emboss and 
emboss itself is still unstable then you obviously cant demask yet because 
you'd break dependency tree for the stable branch

> It also seems that architecture conditional
> dependencies are deprecated.

they arent deprecated, they are straight up not allowed
-mike
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