On Tue, 2024-01-09 at 09:30 +0100, Florian Schmaus wrote:
> On 06/01/2024 18.21, Michał Górny wrote:
> > On Sat, 2024-01-06 at 18:01 +0100, Florian Schmaus wrote:
> > > I really like the functionality of readme.gentoo-r1.eclass, as it
> > > allows to communicate Gentoo-specific information about a package to
> > > the user. Especially as it improves the signal-to-noise ratio of
> > > messages arriving to our users.
> > > 
> > > However, readme.gentoo-r1.eclass will only show this information on
> > > new installs, but not if the information changed. This is a major
> > > drawback. Furthermore, readme.gentoo-r1.eclass does not provide an API
> > > to assemble the information via heredoc.
> > 
> > Are you implying that readme.gentoo-r1 is unfixable and you need to
> > start over, and have a third generation of eclasses to install a readme
> > file?
> 
> Not at all. See the second item of the TODO list in the eclass' description.
> 
> That said, both eclasses are rather small,
> 

Since when, 300 lines to install a README file is "small"?

> > > The main item is doc compression. Right now, greadme.eclass defaults
> > > to add the readme doc to the compression exclusion list via
> > > "docompress -x". A mode where the readme doc is compressed, just as
> > > readme.gentoo-r1.eclass does, can be activated by setting
> > > _GREADME_COMPRESS. However, I believe this mode is fragile as it can
> > > not be guaranteed that a binary for the used compression algorithms is
> > > installed on the host [1].
> > 
> > Dangling reference here.  In any case, documentation compression is
> > a standard feature of the package manager.  If it doesn't work for
> > whatever reason, I'd rather see you focus on find a good solution rather
> > than working it around via abusing `docompress -x`.  
> 
> The problem is the lack of a guarantee that the utilities required to 
> decompress the file are available at installation time.

It's user's responsibility to ensure that the tools set in their
make.conf are available.

> It gets even worse if you consider binpkgs, as you have surely read the 
> comment while looking at the code of the greadme.eclass.

See FEATURES=-binpkg-docompress.  That's the correct way to distribute
binary packages.


-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny