[gentoo-portage-dev] Extra USE field

[Joel Konkle-Parker <jjk3@msstate.edu>]

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.


-- 
Joel Konkle-Parker
Webmaster  [Ballsome.com]

E-mail     [jjk3@msstate.edu]


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