On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:21:34 -0800
Zac Medico <zmedico@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > * Allow package managers that implement native_built_with_use to
> > sandbox off vdb completely, and ban all ebuild access to vdb.
> 
> The problem that I see with native_built_with_use is that the
> package manager will then need to precisely implement the
> build_with_use interface along with any and all supported options
> (and this interface would effectively become part of the EAPI).

True.

> If the package manager exposes a slightly lower level interface to
> the USE flags then build_with_use can use that instead, and the
> package manager won't have to implement the full build_with_use
> interface.  For example, portageq currently supports a "metadata"
> command that can be used to query installed package metadata such as
> USE and IUSE. Perhaps we should use some type of interface similar
> to that.

That's also a possibility. How about something like:

if [[ -n "${E_INSTALLED_PKG_METADATA_CMD}" ]] ; then
    ${E_INSTALLED_PKG_METADATA_CMD} >=cat/pkg-1.23 USE foo
else
    # old vdb stuff
fi

with heavy (and checked) restrictions upon legal metadata keys (stuff
that's in individual files, not environment.bz2)?

-- 
Ciaran McCreesh