Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] Extra USE field

[Douglas Russell <puggy@gentoo.org>]

On Sunday 25 July 2004 20:52, Joel Konkle-Parker wrote:
> Would it be plausible to include an extra field in ebuilds that
> describes what effect a particular USE flag has on the package?
>
> Take, for example, "xml" and "xml2" in the xfree ebuild. Ok, the
> description says that it adds XML support. But why are there two of
> them? Why is it optional? What benefit does it have? etc.
>
> I can see something like:
>
> # etcat -u gnucash
> [ Colour Code : set unset ]
> [ Legend   : (U) Col 1 - Current USE flags        ]
> [          : (I) Col 2 - Installed With USE flags ]
>
>   U I [ Found these USE variables in : app-office/gnucash-1.8.9 ]
> [snip]
>   - - postgres : Adds support for the postgresql database
> 	Effect: Enables optional SQL backend for multiple simultaneous users;
> not currently maintained and does not support all features
> [snip]
>
> The postgres description by itself tells me nothing about why gnucash
> would need or want it, or what benefit it would have.

That would be really nice. I often wonder what the effect on a package is of a 
use flag. Sometimes I really don't know if I want something or not.

Puggy

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