Re: [gentoo-dev] Interest Check: Dynamic config files for portage

["Troy Dack" <tad@gentoo.org>]

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I'll state now that I like the idea of multiple files.

Bill K wrote thusly ...
> This is the reason that ufed has become so popular, and I think
> necessary - the complexity is getting too much.

For USE flags the complexity has increased, mainly because the number of
USE flags has grown and it's not possible to remember every single flag
and what effect it is going to have on building of packages.

> Would a ufed like utility for make.conf be a better approach?

I really don't like the idea of YAGU (Yet Another Gentoo Utility).  I
really like the fact that I can just edit the text files and I don't need
to start up a utility to do it.

The other reason I don't like YAGU is that someone will have to write it
and maintain it, this is not a trivial task as changes to portage will
eventually have some impact on how the utility is written and performs.

>  I am not so keen on
> spawning a number of small bit files for a make.cond.d as that does not
> fix the managebility issue - you will have to edit many files in turn,
> instead of just one file every time.

OK, about the only time that you will have to edit many files in turn is
during the initial installation process.  Personally I don't think that
this is a bad thing, if the documentation is accurate then the
installation process (editing the files) is an excellent educational
experience for new users.

This issue was initially raised due to the fact that a small change to
/etc/make.conf and then merging those changes using etc-update gets very
tiresome.  Generally the changes are simply to the comments and the
comments of only one section.  By having multiple files then only one file
(section) will be touched and you don't have to worry about the other 250
lines. [not having looked but could/can the "Merging trivial updates..."
stage of etc-update handle merging these comments?]

- --
     Troy Dack

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