[gentoo-dev] KUSE....

[Zach Forrest]

I'm just working on adding a couple of optional patches to the latest 
linux-sources ebuild, one of which is a patch to use the BeOS file 
system. Now, I know this is going to see very little interest, but I 
like to have it. Is there a reason that, instead of using USE flags in 
the linux-sources ebuild, one has to uncomment a patch version to enable 
  a feature like mosix? This seems less elegant that USE flags.

One thing that I'd like to see is a KUSE variable for kernel specific 
customizations. So, my KUSE variable might look like:

     KUSE="xfs acpi lowlatency preemptive grsecurity befs"

I think there are some valid arguments for keeping kernel specific flags 
isolated from the rest of the system (though it isn't a requirement, of 
course). Using a KUSE varaible (or just USE) would make the 
linux-sources ebuild both more consistent with the rest of the system 
and make customization much more elegant (rather that having to 
uncomment a line in each new ebuild, I need only specify the options I 
desire once in make.conf).

In Debian, make-kpkg was a nice tool, but having the kernel sources 
downloaded and patched the way you want in one step is without equal.

Nne flaw with this proposal would be any overlap in the USE and KUSE 
variables. For example, gradm is needed to work with the ACL system in 
grsecurity, so do I need to specify "grsecurity" in one or both of the 
variables? One way avoid having to duplicates is for "userspace" ebulds 
to chech both USE and KUSE and have the linux-sources only check KUSE 
(which, of course, could be transparent -- `use x` checks both USE and 
KUSE, where `kuse x` only checks KUSE). I personally like the idea of 
isolating the parameters for the kernel, but there is also an argument 
for only having USE.

Thoughts?

- Zach