On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:09:12 +0200
mmacleod@... wrote:

> > Where did you get that number?
> As I stated originally it is a "very rough calculation".
> I took the number of packages in tree and multiplied this by the
> average size of packages I do have. I then multiplied by the average
> quantity of use flags a package has and an estimate on the average
> amount of dependencies a package has.

Now I understand. I think it is not necessary to provide all possible
USE-flag combinations (PHP alone would use more space than you
projected, I think). We should take some defaults (maybe 4-5 possible
combinations of USE-flags) and, as i said, lots of packages don't have
certain USE-flags and need only be compiled once for all our defaults.

> > Well, I don't think that's needed. I use FEATURES="buildpackage"
> > on all my machines. My headless server uses 1.2 GB, my workstation
> > with GNOME, KDE 4.2 and stuff like firefox, tunderbird, octave,
> > openoffice and much more uses 6.0 GB and my second, more minimal
> > desktop uses 1.7 GB. I did not run eclean-pkg in a while, so that
> > should be much more than I really need.
> But you only have packages for one set of USE flags, as portage does
> not currently store packages for different USE flags.
> Unless you are implying that the majority of users all have the same 
> CFLAGS/Use flags and Programs as you it is unlikely that your 6 GB
> set would be anywhere near close to being able to provide usable
> binaries for many people.

This is where cooperation with the stats project would be really great.

> > So, if you start with, say, some basic i686 profile and really basic
> > CFLAGS and not build too much stuff (Desktop environments, FF, TB,
> > OOo) it should not use too much diskspace. From there it would be
> > really interesting to share packages, I think. We definitively have
> > some packages, that do not depend on architecture. If somebody
> > wants to have different USE-flags it would be interesting to just
> > build the packages with the different USE-flags again, not
> > everything.
> Sure even having the basic stuff available is a nice *start* but
> where are they going to be hosted and who is going to compile them,
> and using what server?

I think that could be managed. If you only build a subset and not all
USE-flag combinations, maybe someone could donate some VM.

> I am not sure what you mean here by not building everything again?

Maybe you have some different USE-flag profiles, let's say, kde and
gnome (enabling the needed flags, disabling the ones for the other
desktop environment). Then you only need to provide one binary package
for openssh, because it is not affected by the USE-flag differences.

Philipp