[gentoo-dev] Re: [gentoo-dev-announce] debug USE flag misuse

[Vaeth]

Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@×××××.de> wrote:
>
> If you use portage than you can control per-package CFLAGS using
> bashrc and /etc/portage/env or similar functionality.

This is correct, but the problem is that an ebuild author or
upstream cannot set a "default" here:  IMHO, it shouldn't be
necessary for the user to use such things only in order to
compile a package with the CFLAGS which upstream recommends.
Normally, users will not read such a recommendation (and in fact,
they shouldn't have to, since reading INSTALL or similar things
should be the task of the ebuild author).

Speaking from the author's perspective: There should be a way
to write code appropriate for a specific compiler flag and to
assume that most users will then actually compile the package
with the corresponding flag.
If a user explicitly does not want to do this, this is fine,
but the ebuild should have a way to make sure that this only
happens if it is really the intention of the user.
Normally, USE flags are the way to pass options to the
user, aren't they?

Best Regards
Martin Väth