From: Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@gmail.com>
To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] virtual/shadow
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:50:33 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAEH5T2N7bfUfFd3gNDx5g9mKMd7zmgXDnD7MDC=HhoR3kMRP-Q@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1669924605.604523.1331575521916.JavaMail.open-xchange@email.1and1.com>
On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 1:05 PM, Bruce Hill, Jr.
<daddy@happypenguincomputers.com> wrote:
> These virtual apps are irritating me, and the fanboi answers in #gentoo
> are worse.
>
> What is the purpose of virtual/shadow and why would I want it?
Virtual packages are kind of an abstraction layer for compatible
alternative packages. Other packages can depend on the virtual instead
of depending on every combination of possible alternatives, and the
user can install whichever of the alternatives he prefers.
For example, MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL. From a
dependency standpoint, they are compatible. Instead of any program
depending on MySQL being modified to check for either MySQL or
MariaDB, virtual/mysql was created and it can be satisfied by either
dev-db/mysql or dev-db/mariadb being installed.
In the case of shadow, he new virtual is to allow you to use either
sys-apps/shadow or sys-apps/hardened-shadow. See here:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/gentoo/dev/249394
If you view the virtual package's ebuild, this line is the key:
RDEPEND="|| ( >=sys-apps/shadow-4.1 sys-apps/hardened-shadow )"
HTH :)
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-03-12 18:52 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 11+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2012-03-12 18:05 [gentoo-user] virtual/shadow Bruce Hill, Jr.
2012-03-12 18:50 ` Paul Hartman [this message]
2012-03-12 19:21 ` Bruce Hill, Jr.
2012-03-12 19:19 ` [gentoo-user] virtual/shadow Nikos Chantziaras
2012-03-12 19:30 ` Bruce Hill, Jr.
2012-03-12 20:29 ` Alan McKinnon
2012-03-12 22:34 ` »Q«
2012-03-12 23:54 ` Nikos Chantziaras
2012-03-13 0:23 ` Neil Bothwick
2012-03-13 3:46 ` Nikos Chantziaras
2012-03-13 16:04 ` »Q«
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