Re: [gentoo-dev] Guidelines for IUSE defaults

[Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org>]

On 02/02/2017 11:08 AM, Rich Freeman wrote:
> 
> Which is simpler, a minimal profile that sets USE=-* and then lists a
> few exceptions where that breaks in package.use, or an upstream
> defaults profile (which becomes the basis for all the other profiles)
> that has a 5000 line package.use file that specifies the upstream
> defaults for every package in the repository?
> 

It's honestly hard to say. I see your point, but "a few exceptions"
might not be so few. Every IUSE default that

  (1) enables something critical, or
  (2) enables a default choice for a REQUIRED_USE constraint

would need to be added back to the minimal profile. And of course the
reason I started this thread is that those two usages are common. I
clearly had the "minimal base" profile in mind, but the fact that (1)
and (2) are used throughout the tree creates problems for any minimal
profile, even is the base profile is "upstream defaults."

If (base == minimal), then all of the upstream defaults need to be added
to package.use for the upstream-defaults profile. That's bad, but if
(base == upstream-defaults), then the important IUSE defaults need to be
copy/pasted from our ebuilds into the minimal profile. The latter is
more spiritually damning =)