[gentoo-alt] Re: Fwd: gentoo without bootstrapping

[Dirk Tilger]

On 2009-11-17, mobi phil <mobi@××××××××.com> wrote:
> At least it is not clear for me from the description if it is possible
> to create a gentoo prefix installation without bootstrapping, that is
> to use the available tools from the system (gcc, python, sed etc.), as
> long as they satisfy all minimal implementation requirements (correct
> version, correct set of features etc.)

It's easy to try. You leave out the bootstrap steps of the packages that
you want to use from the host and put those also in packages.provided.

> I am convinced that in most of the cases that would be more natural,
> would be faster to get to the end point etc.
> What I mean, is that in the example with the student or enterprise,
> you normally have a set of tools by default on the system. They might
> be latest version etc, etc. What one would expect from gentoo prefix
> is: "gentoo prefix install vim". That is vim is not available, or it
> is only version 7.00, it should just download the src, use gentoo
> prefix config make etc.
>
> Indeed the question is what should happen with libraries: the rule
> should be: if a library is available inside the gentoo prefix system,
> use that one, if not try to use the one from the host.

Using anything from outside prefix leads generally to uncertainty,
because you cannot know for each and every system how these system
libraries and tools have been built. For many standards components loads
of patches are available that might or might not be available.

Though it is possible to use the system libraries, you're on your own
when you encounter any problem. The original idea of gentoo-alt was to
have portage residing inside the host system and just provide the
missing things through it. You'll fnd more insight on why this doesn't
good when you study older postings on this list.

Dirk.