From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1RVo9v-0002XT-OT for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:41:27 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7A36F21C07D; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:41:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-bw0-f53.google.com (mail-bw0-f53.google.com [209.85.214.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EECD21C03A for ; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:40:19 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bkaq10 with SMTP id q10so1269858bka.40 for ; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:40:18 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=cbRKwJDO/5RcJqC3wOScV8JX/EwdXg7N7s+NDooiWAU=; b=giQJIO/kIXx1V8GDSzxmQ1drV8GNxMCRddpLSDSIg1zisWWGxRCqjcniWCMr/Gl1PL LAn2hFJIQfUwKYEjSm3MqV9UOncg+raC1mQcAm5Co+Uf1eIlCx0KApPJAUTSrm+4FXwd i46DWVDpnX+Zap4ruM01eaJKEQHsqBfbd++VA= 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 Received: by 10.204.148.67 with SMTP id o3mr3394373bkv.130.1322674818631; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:40:18 -0800 (PST) Sender: freemanrich@gmail.com Received: by 10.204.121.2 with HTTP; Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:40:18 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <4ED65AFD.2000601@gentoo.org> References: <201111291509.35502.vapier@gentoo.org> <4ED5CBFF.9070603@gentoo.org> <201111301109.28915.vapier@gentoo.org> <4ED65AFD.2000601@gentoo.org> Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:40:18 -0500 X-Google-Sender-Auth: x_zQ2FAoS9pTkwO-5fxr-N750oo Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: sys-libs/zlib: punt from system in profiles From: Rich Freeman To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: d07bf74e-61b8-485f-873f-f7191ca86c7d X-Archives-Hash: cf630f5676ef8d39d0ea3744c6589304 On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 11:34 AM, Zac Medico wrote: > Ignoring circular dependencies doesn't make them go away. Ignoring > dependencies can lead to build failures that could have been avoided if > they were expressed in a way that the dependency resolver could properly > account for them. ++ One man's gawk is another man's KDE. A solution that expresses all dependencies and handles them well is much more elegant than one that requires hard-coding a list of core dependencies that we just think are too complicated to work out. Of course, to really get to the point where we'd have no system set at all we'd need to somehow automate the dependency generation, since otherwise ebuild maintenance would be very painful. Considering that we can't even tell if a program will halt it is clearly impossible to guarantee a perfect set of runtime dependencies. Of course, you might be able to come up with something that is good enough - especially when combined with the ability to add them in manually. None of this completely solves the fundamental bootstrapping problem. However, a full set of dependency specifications would let you at least determine what the minimal bootstrap actually is. I see all of this as more of an aspirational goal - one that we shouldn't fret about not being able to achieve, or subject ourselves to tremendous pain to get a little closer to. However, we also shouldn't hold back when opportunities to take a step closer arise. Rich