[gentoo-user] Re: Giving Gentoo Another Go

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

Neil Bothwick <neil <at> digimed.co.uk> writes:

> 
> On Fri, 18 Mar 2016 10:09:14 +0000, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> 
> > > You will develop your way of doing things over time, and that way
> > > could change as your needs do. Using your example of package.use,
> > > moving USE flags from package.use to make.conf is an easy enough task
> > > if you need to change. I tend to put them n package.use to start with
> > > then migrate to make.conf if I find I am using the same flag on
> > > several packages.  

The entire /etc/make.conf directory is parses, so you can take package.use
and make a dir out of it and then logically organize your flags into several
directories, once a system get's large and complex.


> > A simple way to start off is to see whether the USE flag is listed in 
> > /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc or use.local.desc. If the former, it's
> > likely to affect many packages in a typical system so put it in
> > make.conf; if the latter, it's likely to affect only a few of your
> > packages so put it in package.use. You can always move it later if you
> > want to, as Neil says.

> app-portage/euses is an easy way of looking up USE flags, give it the
> name of a flag and it shows you the description. If it shows one or more
> package names, the USE flag is defined in local.desc.



All good information. The exciting thing happening in Gentoo right now,
is some of the devs are promoting the concept of 'lazy flags'. This
basically means some new and additional features will be added to portage
or the Packaage Management system (portage, paludis, etc) where additional
user defined logic will 'automagically' make default and necessary 
modifications to flag configurations, and the user just reviews those
'auto-enhancements' or something like that. 


Gentoo never stops innovating, but the caveat is you have to be patient and
invest of yourself into learning Gentoo.


Gentoo is an addiction, which most of us are quite happy with. Gentoo also
has legendary status with many of the brightest minds in computer science,
for a myriad of valid reasons. Gentoo is something that is wonderful to be a
part of and is an 'honor_badge' of fortitude  because one can  deeply learn
about linux, software and a host of relevant technologies quite readily in a
Gentoo environment. 


Gentoo's future is very bright, unique and most rewarding. Gentoo is my pal
and my best friend and what I use to earn money.


hth,
James