[gentoo-user] Re: Machine completely broken; Ncursed!

[»Q« <boxcars@gmx.net>]

On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 21:24:48 -0400
Alec Ten Harmsel <alec@alectenharmsel.com> wrote:

> On 04/12/2015 09:15 PM, »Q« wrote:
> >
> > Before you pore through it, I guess I should point out that it's not
> > causing me any problems -- I was just curious about why it would be
> > a bad idea for me to manage those PYTHON_* variables myself.  I
> > guess the most notable thing about my make.conf is that I'm one of
> > those crazy USE="-*" people.
> 
> It's not a bad idea to manage the PYTHON_TARGETS,
> PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET, and RUBY_TARGET variables if you *need* a
> specific version of python or ruby. If you do not, I would say it is
> bad. These are set in the profile so that the maintainers can decide
> when to update to a new stable version. Since all of the various
> python and ruby libraries are installed from source, it's generally a
> good idea to wait for the maintainers to stabilize a certain version
> since that means the library support is also good.

How can I find out whether the profile is setting those variables?
ISTM the emerge errors I posted earlier, which happen if I get rid of
those variables in make.conf, indicate that they are not being set at
all.

When a new version of python (or ruby, I guess) is stabilized,  I do
have to spend some time making sure those variables are sanely set, and
I'd rather just leave it up to the devs.

> Also, using the KDE profile and having USE="-*" seem contrary. One of
> the main reasons to use a profile is to get a relevant set of USE
> flags.

I don't want the profile's USE flags, but I still thought it best to
select the profile that matches what I use the machine for.