[gentoo-user] Re: Cleaner USE variable in /etc/make.conf

[James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com>]

Walter Dnes <waltdnes <at> waltdnes.org> writes:


>   BLEAGH!  I've now broken it up into logical groupings...

USE_cpu="3dnow mmx sse sse2"
USE_font="bitmap-fonts truetype-fonts type1-fonts"
USE_gui="X dga dri gtk2 opengl sdl xv"
USE_multimedia="a52 aac alsa divx4linux encode exif ffmpeg flac 
gif jpeg mikmod mng mp3 mpeg ogg png quicktime theora tiff vcd 
vorbis win32codecs wmf xpm"
USE_misc="bzip2 cdr dio dvd dvdr dvdread fortran gb imlib maildir 
mime mmap ncurses nptl nptlonly nsplugin offensive plotutils 
posix readline sharedmem slang sockets threads zlib"
>


I too, have many, many flags set. I broke mine up sime time ago, but
I did not 'characterize' them as you have done. I find this a most
excellent idea.

Some time ago Cirian M. posted this little nugget to help one quickly 
determine the meaning/purpose of flags. I put it in my bashrc file:

# USE flag settings  by Ciaran McCreesh:
explainuseflag(){ sed -ne "s,^\([^ ]*:\)\?$1 - ,,p" $(portageq
portdir)/profiles/use.{,local.}desc; }
alias ef="explainuseflag"


>   which is followed by...
> USE="-* ${USE_cpu} ${USE_font} ${USE_gui} ${USE_multimedia} ${USE_misc}"

What exactly are you hoping to be able to do with these constructs?
(sorry, I'm missing the point of these constructs).

> My USE variable still ends up with the same information, but I have an
> easier time editing it.  The only question I have is whether there are
> any groups of reserved variable names /etc/make.conf, so that I don't
> screw up system variables.

I ran across some reserved words some time ago. But I did not save the
URl... It might be prudent to discover the most recent system (default) 
flags as they have most recently changed.


> This won't be the final config.  I'm trying to figure out a logical
> way to break up "USE_multimedia", but I run into programs like mplayer
> that work with audio, video, and still images. 

Aren't all of these 'multimedia'? I sense you are looking for 
a cleaner breakdown of flag groups to avoid the largess of a
'multimedia' category. But that is subjective and difficult.
Think about it, I can have jpeg images and then motion jpeg
video. But, the flags may effect the performance of both
technolgies in yet differenent software packages. That's why
the term multimedia is so prevalent. My only real suggestion
is look at the collection of flags you have and derive a breakdown
that works for the (current) flags you have. It will be subjective
and highly dependent on your selected flags to come up with small
categories. Maybe you can break it up like this:

# Multimedia
"USE_mplayer"
"USE_ffmpeg"
"USE_audio"
"USE_video-players"

Where your selected categories are not so rigid as audio, stills,
video, etc....?

> "USE_misc" will always be a candidate for taking stuff out.

"USE_Apache"
or
"USE_db" might be appropriate on some systems?

Indeed, even the other groups will expand/contract as time 
progresses. All in all, you have take steps that I have often
thought about, but, have deferred expenditures of time on. I'm 
interested to follow progression of your ideas.

On as similar note, I have extensive settings in the /etc/portage
files, particularly on those servers and workstations with 
multimeida. What I have done to keep some form of sanity, in those
files, is to have a core group of entries that are common to many
of the gentoo systems I manage. Then each system in each of the
files {package.keywords, package.use, etc} have a section that
is unique, i.e. different from the other system but are semi-permanent
settings. At the top of these files, there is a section where the
entries are tenuous or experimental......

Do post your progress and thoughts as I find it interesting
to the point of motivational for my ever-expanding world
of gentoo system support. Logical organization of all things
multimedia, is a challenge, methinks.


James




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