Re: [gentoo-dev] overlay usage and maintainence [was: DistroWatch and Gentoo packages: status quo and future]

["Jesús Guerrero" <i92guboj@terra.es>]

On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:41:13 +0200, Patrick Lauer <patrick@gentoo.org>
wrote:
> On Sunday 13 September 2009 21:03:13 Jesús Guerrero wrote:
>> On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:57:48 +0200, Patrick Lauer <patrick@gentoo.org>
>> 
>> wrote:
>> > First issue: How do I find out in which overlay stuff is?
>> 
>> http://gentoo.zapto.org/
> 
> That's not an official project, not mentioned in the layman docs afaik
> (feel 
> free to prove me wrong :) ) and only list the overlays in the layman
> config.
> It's just one step above "fetch from the bugzilla bug" ;)
> (Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it's still very user-unfriendly ...)

I don't know what your point there is. Layman is not official either as
far as I know, and the overlays are unsupported by Gentoo directly.

>> > Second issue: "I want foopackage and barpackage, but not your hacked
>> > gcc"
>> > Overlays can overshadow tree packages, which can have undesired
>> > effects.
>> 
>> Smart overlays shouldn't do that (and if you are using ~arch then it's
>> *your* problem). 
> How would you avoid it? If I had an overlay I'd dump everything in it
that 
> looks remotely interesting to me, and I don't care what you think should
> be in 
> my overlay ;)

How? ~arch keywords? And, if you are in ~arch, then you are smart enough
to live with this as well.

>> Yep. All comes down to the same, lack of man power I think.
> Always. And if you ever think you're done some users file some new bugs
:)
> So if you feel unhappy about things go fix them. You have the power!
> (And any excuse that you are not talented enough or whatever ... look,
> they 
> let me commit to the tree too!)
> 
> Plus there's all the other fronts in the battle for the best linux
distro. 
> Bugwrangling, documentation maintenance, security issues, ... there are
> enough 
> possibilities even for those that can't or don't want to work on ebuilds

> directly. Just start working on stuff, ask when you need help and it'll
be 
> even better soon.
> 
> See? It's easy. And you have no excuse not to help. Now just do stuff!
:)

No. It's not me who's unhappy about the current status of things ;)

I already do my work in other areas and I have no more time than I
devote to Gentoo already. I maintain overlays to a minimum, and when
I need an overlay I just pick it and put it into my personal overlay.

Yes, every forum staffer could very well become a developer and spend
their time doing some ebuilding, but then we would have a crappy forum
full of spam (believe me, it takes time to keep it clean) :)
-- 
Jesús Guerrero