[gentoo-dev] Re: splitting build deps out from depends

[Duncan]

Maurice van der Pot posted <20050701183536.GR19598@××××××××.com>,
excerpted below,  on Fri, 01 Jul 2005 20:35:36 +0200:

> If the point is to make dependencies complete, isn't there a way to
> build in some support for detecting it into some tool or other?
>
> If we have a program that can create an environment and detect which
> programs are run within the environment (maybe sandbox can do this,
> maybe something with LD_PRELOAD, I'm sure we can think of something),
> then we can build a list of programs that are run during the build.
> If we have such a list, we can find out which packages are required
> to provide the tools in the list.
>
> Such a tool could be used to generate the correct build dependencies
> automatically or verify the existing bdeps.

If the other subthread touched on this, I missed it.  Just because an
executable may be used if there, doesn't necessarily make it a depend. 
Such a tool will document the path to configuration and compilation used
in the particular case of the system at the time it was run, but many of
those "dependencies" are one of several options (could be handled by
virtuals, tho such would have to be hashed out and added to a list that
said tool uses over time, and then we have the issue of making the tool
smart enough to know when the virtual is required, vs. when a specific
instance of that virtual is required) or are only used if present, with
another path entirely taken if not.

It might be possible to create a tool that could help automate /some/ of
this, but getting it all right even a simple majority of the time would be
very challenging and complex.  Basically, to get it right, you'll have to
have a human skilled in that sort of thing parse the output and match it
against the actual package behavior, anyway.  Thus, in ordered to have any
sort of consistency, the requirement would be an entire team of devs doing
little else but verifying this information, since many ebuild maintainers
would be as out of their depth as someone who's only worked on x86
scripting all their life would be with ppc64 bitness AND endianness
issues. That's a LOT of developer infrastructure we are talking about
creating and supporting, and a LOT of developer resources that therefore
won't be available for other things, when developer resource shortages
/already/ exist.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html


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