[gentoo-user] Re: This nite's switch to "full multilib"

["Holger Hoffstätte" <holger.hoffstaette@googlemail.com>]

On Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:14:29 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:

>> OK, then so why do I have to edit files to tell the system to USE this
>> and that after the system tells me it needs that ... ?
>> 
>> Why isn't this taken care of within portage itself?
>> 
>> I don't *want* to decide 32bit or not ... (I like that I *can* ...)
>> 
>> I want a (mostly) stable and current linux system with the necessary
>> choices done by the maintainers ... if Skype needs it ... ok, then make
>> that a dependency/requirement somewhere ... but why force me to set that
>> (for so many packages) ?
> 
> OK, think it through first.

Sure thing.

> You want skype. Skype is 32bit. So far, we're good. You put an entry in
> package.use to enable abi_x86_32 for skype.

Except..at that point you would have already failed.

There is no good reason whatsoever why portage shouldn't be able to treat
this like a transitive required USE flag requirement, percolating through
all libs from the toplevel requirement's dependency tree.

In fact it should do so automatically when the ebuild declares the abi_x86_32
constraint from the start, without requiring the user to do anything.

There are other reasons why coupling the native and 32-bit worlds together is
a bad idea in the long-term, regardless of understandable technical reasons
and good intentions.

So yeah: think it through first.

-h