[gentoo-dev] `paludis --info' is not like `emerge --info'

[Jeroen Roovers <jer@gentoo.org>]

     Hi folks,


both in #gentoo and more importantly in bug reports, people are often
asked to provide their `emerge --info', which gives a quick and
very useful overview of the most important bits found on the system that
wants support or (allegedly) exhibits a bug. Based on that information
it is usually very easy to determine whether an issue arose because of,
say, a problematic combination of packages, a configuration error or
some unsupported compiler features.

Paludis users often seem to think that `paludis --info' and `emerge
--info' are interchangeable, whereas a quick inspection reveals to
even the most casual user that the former only intends to inform about
paludis' own compile time and run time configuration, whereas the
latter includes information about a number of critical system
packages, the global USE and USE_EXPAND variables and GENTOO_MIRRORS
variable, to name a few.

In short, `paludis --info' is not a replacement, and when `emerge
--info' is asked for in a bug report, post *that*. There are many
examples of what should be included out here, so if you can't or won't
use emerge, then you'll have to copy the information manually.
Remarking that you "don't use emerge" is not a valid reason not to post
it - post both `(emerge|paludis) --info' if you must - having both
there will help greatly and is necessary for the time being[1].


Kind regards,
     jer


[1] Future development could see the release of a unified, fully
supported `$PM--info' feature or perhaps a separate tool, and
this side issue is most likely off topic on gentoo-dev@.