From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 13829 invoked from network); 25 Jul 2004 21:37:07 +0000 Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (156.56.111.197) by lists.gentoo.org with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP; 25 Jul 2004 21:37:07 +0000 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([156.56.111.196] helo=parrot.gentoo.org) by smtp.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1Boqg1-0005gb-6a for arch-gentoo-portage-dev@lists.gentoo.org; Sun, 25 Jul 2004 21:37:01 +0000 Received: (qmail 16298 invoked by uid 89); 25 Jul 2004 21:37:00 +0000 Mailing-List: contact gentoo-portage-dev-help@gentoo.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail Reply-To: gentoo-portage-dev@lists.gentoo.org X-BeenThere: gentoo-portage-dev@gentoo.org Received: (qmail 28543 invoked from network); 25 Jul 2004 21:36:59 +0000 From: Douglas Russell To: gentoo-portage-dev@lists.gentoo.org Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2004 22:33:06 +0100 User-Agent: KMail/1.6.2 References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Organization: Gentoo Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200407252233.06345.puggy@gentoo.org> Subject: Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] Extra USE field X-Archives-Salt: 4f45265e-b385-442c-a388-7cae2793556c X-Archives-Hash: 5a14cc355afc6b802d81cf3e965402a5 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 -- gentoo-portage-dev@gentoo.org mailing list