Re: [gentoo-dev] New USE_EXPAND NGINX_MODULES_STREAM

[Dirkjan Ochtman <djc@gentoo.org>]

On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 11:27 AM, Jason Zaman <perfinion@gentoo.org> wrote:
> Which looks easier and nicer to you?
>
> NGINX_MODULES_HTTP="access auth_basic autoindex browser charset
> fancyindex fastcgi geo gzip limit_req limit_zone map memcached proxy
> realip referer rewrite scgi spdy split_clients ssi upstream_check
> upstream_ip_hash userid uwsgi"
>
> or:
>
> www-servers/nginx nginx_modules_http_access nginx_modules_http_auth_basic nginx_modules_http_autoindex nginx_modules_http_browser nginx_modules_http_charset nginx_modules_http_fancyindex nginx_modules_http_fastcgi nginx_modules_http_geo nginx_modules_http_gzip nginx_modules_http_limit_req nginx_modules_http_limit_zone nginx_modules_http_map nginx_modules_http_memcached nginx_modules_http_proxy nginx_modules_http_realip nginx_modules_http_referer nginx_modules_http_rewrite nginx_modules_http_scgi nginx_modules_http_spdy nginx_modules_http_split_clients nginx_modules_http_ssi nginx_modules_http_upstream_check nginx_modules_http_upstream_ip_hash nginx_modules_http_userid nginx_modules_http_uwsgi

Well, it seems like we could easily skip the _modules_http suffix, and
the difference would not nearly be so large.

The problem I have with it is that, as a user, it's yet another
concept to grasp and configure. Instead of just working with USE flags
(e.g. looking at use.desc or using ufed to review, configuring USE
flags in make.conf or package.use), I now have to find/learn a bunch
of new stuff. What packages use what USE_EXPAND things (e.g. apache
has two), what are valid values for all of these.

Where with simple USE flags, there is a single mechanism that I have
to learn and can apply across the board; with USE_EXPAND stuff, I have
to learn new stuff for each new package that adopts one or more
USE_EXPAND things.

So if this cosmetic expansion is the only advantage, that seems like a
relatively limited one (e.g. it could be improved a lot just by
formatting), and the trade-off of introducing all this extra
complexity doesn't make that much sense to me.

Cheers,

Dirkjan