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 1M8ihU-0002Dl-M7 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 25 May 2009 22:31:20 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 26772E05FE; Mon, 25 May 2009 22:31:19 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DAE84E05FE for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 22:31:18 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9A5B065204 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 22:31:17 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at gentoo.org X-Spam-Score: -2.928 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.928 required=5.5 tests=[AWL=0.671, BAYES_00=-2.599, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW=-1] Received: from smtp.gentoo.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.gentoo.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 91bWvyA1TvnP for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 22:31:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A1E1CC305 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 11:44:14 +0000 (UTC) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1M8Yb8-000202-2b for gentoo-dev@gentoo.org; Mon, 25 May 2009 11:44:06 +0000 Received: from ip68-231-21-207.ph.ph.cox.net ([68.231.21.207]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 11:44:06 +0000 Received: from 1i5t5.duncan by ip68-231-21-207.ph.ph.cox.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 11:44:06 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org From: Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net> Subject: [gentoo-dev] Re: better support for binary packages Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 11:43:55 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <1243245294.7098.63.camel@hspc31.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de> 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 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: ip68-231-21-207.ph.ph.cox.net User-Agent: Pan/0.133 (House of Butterflies) Sender: news Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: d40115b8-09e3-484f-8cf1-5f93544a0a2c X-Archives-Hash: 5128df9ffbfbc80d8a2e50f49fb54098 lxnay@sabayonlinux.org posted fv50wm3klntqyetcw4UYAxe124vaj_firegpg@mail.gmail.com, excerpted below, on= =20 Mon, 25 May 2009 12:16:06 +0200: > This is what I am doing in Sabayon, creating a new layer over Portage =3D= > > Entropy. I'm almost done, just need to work out some documentation and > apidocs. http://gitweb.sabayon.org/?p=3Dentropy.git;a=3Dsummary Agreed. Gentoo is in general a from-source metadistribution. There's limited=20 support for binary packages in at least one of the package managers=20 (portage), but honestly, that's not what Gentoo's best at, and I don't=20 believe that will ever change without making it significantly worse at=20 what it IS best at now, the normal from-source Gentoo we know and love. Better to leave the serious distribution level binary repackaging to the=20 Gentoo-based distributions like Sabayon. Let them do what they do best,=20 and let Gentoo continue doing what it does best. By definition, binary=20 packaging isn't broken and doesn't need fixed, as that's not part of what= =20 defines Gentoo, so don't fix what ain't broken! =3D:^) That said, I could envision an eselect like "binary profile" switcher,=20 that subject to settings in a config file, changes USE flags, CFLAGS, gcc= - configs an appropriate gcc version, etc, changing PKGDIR appropriately as= =20 well, so one could easily enough create as many "binary profiles" as=20 desired and as the use case dictated. It's likely various reasonably=20 large Gentoo deployments are already doing something like this as it=20 could certainly be scripted, but an emergable package to make it easy for= =20 ordinary joe Gentoo user would be useful, and I believe appreciated by=20 many. =20 (Here, I'd put it to use when testing new gcc versions, making it easy to= =20 swap out PKGDIRs and revert to the old version either per-package or=20 system-wide, if the new version was breaking too much.) So here: No to the whole big complicated let's fix Gentoo binaries=20 thing. There's already Gentoo-based binary solutions like Sabayon for=20 those so interested, and I can't see Gentoo doing better than they're=20 doing, at least not without breaking the from-source that Gentoo's good=20 at. But yes to anyone interested in developing a nice new "binary=20 profile" switcher to make managing binary package sets easier for those=20 Gentoo admins that would find such a thing useful. Whether they then=20 start making those profiles public and whether anyone else chooses to use= =20 them is entirely up to the individual admins whose systems would be=20 affected. --=20 Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman