From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([69.77.167.62] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KQbMj-0004bH-Rb for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:15:18 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id D9204E00A4; Wed, 6 Aug 2008 05:15:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC800E00A4 for ; Wed, 6 Aug 2008 05:15:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.22.10] (ip68-4-152-120.oc.oc.cox.net [68.4.152.120]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08EAB6718E for ; Wed, 6 Aug 2008 05:15:14 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: <4899335F.1000803@gentoo.org> Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:15:11 -0700 From: Zac Medico User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 (X11/20080707) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-dev] [RFC] New PROPERTIES=virtual value to identify meta-packages? X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Archives-Salt: 33c7e7c2-a1e4-471a-8068-906873115f7c X-Archives-Hash: 365b5adf90b64d7ae2a39740e548db11 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi everyone, I'd like you all to consider a PROPERTIES=virtual setting that allows an ebuild to indicate that it installs no files and serves only as a layer of dependency indirection. This will be another use for the new PROPERTIES metadata variable that's already been proposed to be added to the set of variables distributed via ${PORTDIR}/metadata/cache/ as part of the implementation of PROPERTIES=live-sources [1]. The PROPERTIES=virtual attribute is useful as a means to indicate that a package costs practically nothing to install. This knowledge plays a vital role in distinguishing the most optimal state, when deciding which packages should be chosen to satisfy the dependencies of a virtual. Knowledge of this property is what allows bug #141118 [2] to be solved. In the past it was possible to infer the property represented by PROPERTIES=virtual from the fact that a package was in the virtual category [3]. However, a java-virtuals category [4] has since been added. Also, we have some other meta-packages like kde-*-meta or whatnot that could legitimately advertise this attribute. Does this seem like a desirable way to represent the "virtual" attribute? Any suggestions? Zac [1] http://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-dev/msg_187585c5d49b69034183719ff473710d.xml [2] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=141118 [3] http://packages.gentoo.org/category/virtual [4] http://packages.gentoo.org/category/java-virtuals -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkiZM14ACgkQ/ejvha5XGaMCGwCeJdcO2dGeqsLyDJ8dhDquw8Hm Hm0An3WdGcsKJWjt0jaxrrTDXsgBBoNW =c/WK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----