Am 16.09.2010 03:46, schrieb Ryan Hill:
> On Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:02:00 +0200
> Thomas Sachau <tommy@g.o> wrote:
> 
>> From discussion on IRC, it seems, like there are different options, so i would like to clarify this
>> policy:
>>
>> The test USE flag is (i am only talking about portage now, since i am most familar with it) an
>> internal flag, which is added by portage for every ebuild and enabled/disabled based on
>> FEATURES=test or not. It is not managed via USE= line in make.conf or package.use settings. So in
>> handling and setting, it is pretty much the same as for the arch USE flags, which are also only
>> internally used and added, but never exposed to the users.
>> Now i see the opinion, that it should always be added to IUSE, when it is referenced in the ebuild.
>> This adds it to the visible USE flags in emerge output (imho pointless, since it is no option, which
>> can be enabled/disabled like the other USE flags), but otherwise does change nothing.
>>
>> Because of this, i would like to discourage the addition of test USE flag to IUSE, since it is just
>> an internal USE flag, which should not be exposed to the user.
> 
> Well, it does indicate the presence of optional dependencies.
> 
> I've always thought the test USE flag being forced by FEATURES=test was
> messed up.  Why can't it be controlled package-by-package, with FEATURES=test
> just enabling USE=test by default?
> 
> 

Controling the test USE flag alone without the test FEATURE is useless, since it wont run the
src_test phase. And being able to disable the test USE flag with FEATURES=test will result in
missing deps or build-system args. Can you tell me any reason, why you want to expose and control
the test USE flag independently of FEATURES=test?

-- 
Thomas Sachau

Gentoo Linux Developer