On Sat, 5 Mar 2011 18:41:46 +0100
Constanze Hausner <constanze@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > You're requiring special package manager behaviour if that flag is
> > set?
> 
> I'm requiring, that the package manager preserves the xattrs, when
> stripping the binary and when moving it from the sandbox to the
> live-fs.

Currently we've got wording in PMS forbidding anything from relying
upon xattrs being preserved correctly, since that's what Portage did
when we wrote it. So if you're looking to change that, you'll need to
EAPI control it.

But it's not as simple as just requiring attributes to be preserved in
future EAPIs, since:

* some xattrs are fs specific

* some xattrs (selinux?) can't be copied

* some filesystems don't support xattrs at all, and the package manager
  needs to support installing to them, even if the user is building on
  a filesystem that does support it

* tar and xattrs is a massive problem, so how do binaries work?

I think it'd help if you provided a description of how all the above
(plus the other issues that I've forgotten about) can be handled.

-- 
Ciaran McCreesh