[gentoo-pms] (Minimal) standarization of the 'sets' feature

["Michał Górny" <gentoo@mgorny.alt.pl>]

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Hello,

First of all, I would like to notice I'm not trying to force moving
Portage-specific features to PMS. I'm just trying to get some
standarization on one of these features to make it possible for devs to
use it in gx86 without commiting non-standard files.

The particular feature I'm talking about is defining repository-wide
package sets. Currently, this is done through a Portage-specific
'sets.conf' file in the repository's root directory. Although such file
could be considered acceptable for an overlay, I wouldn't like to see
such a non-standard file commited to gx86.

On the other hand, many of current Portage users could benefit from
the 'x11-module-rebuild' set we have introduced in 'x11' overlay [1].
This particular set quickly aggregates all X11 modules for a rebuild
after the xorg-server ABI change.

Portage by default supplies a few more sets which would fit repository-
-specific set definition file better than the system-wide Portage
configuration directory -- like the @live-rebuild and @module-rebuild
sets.

This is why I suggest considering adding some basic definitions
for 'sets' in the PMS, keeping that feature fully optional for PMs but
preparing a standarized ground for those who would like to use it.

What I would like to see in the PMS is:
1) a definition of a 'set',
2) a definition of few basic types of sets (Portage currently describes
them using specific classes but portable names would be much better),
3) a specification for repository-wide sets definition file.

In fact, the specification doesn't really even need to push the 'sets'
into atom specifications -- as I guess we would rather keep away from
using them in dependencies, and PM could be free to use any syntax to
reference them.

[1] http://tnij.org/g6rl

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny

<http://mgorny.alt.pl>
<xmpp:mgorny@jabber.ru>

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