Re: [gentoo-dev] portage database management

[Jared H. Hudson]

I like XML as much as the next guy, but one thing you should remember is 
that ebuilds are not some arbitrary pkg format -- they're bash scripts. 
They may not look it, since they don't have #!/bin/bash at the top, but 
they are bash scripts that are sourced with other bash scripts. So, for 
example, most ebuilds have bash functins like src_unpack, src_install, 
ect, but others have their own functions that are defined and called by 
these src_* functions. Converting this to XML would mean that portage 
would have to convert everything to bash, plus there'd have to be enough 
flexibility in the XML stylesheet we'd to include the possibility of 
unknown-ebuild-specific global variables, functions, ect.

Just food for thought.

-Jared H.

Brian Friday wrote:
> -- Begin Newbie Rant
>
> First (as it is my first post), I'd like to say thanks to all the people
> who've made gentoo what it is today. I've used lots of linux distributions
> but Gentoo was the first to make me feel at home. So thanks for creating
> something I have, am and hope to continue enjoying.
>
> -- End Newbie Rant
>
> Perhaps I'm totally missing the point but....
>
> On the large scale, there will be soon if not already a need to know
> when a package was released and/or what version of the distribution it
> first occurred in. In addition, making dependency information more
> accessible, up to date and more detailed would be helpful as well. These
> needs would be in addition to the general information portage currently
> stores about a packages (ie category, name, version, size, homepage, and
> description).
>
> For the large scale, a database would seem to be the logical choice for
> storing all this information. With a web or similarly easy interface to
> allow casual browsing and or administration. You'd want to have primary
> servers which would ideally feed mirrors who then in turn feed users.
> Though they could feed the end users as well.
>
> For the individual system, I think the DB idea is overkill but I like
> the plugin ability. Maybe a step similar to choosing your cron/syslog but
> instead you would be choosing your portage backend.
>
> One of the key strengths of Gentoo I see as an end user is that most/all
> of the files which determine how I can build/configure my system are
> directly editable.  In practical terms, this openness has encouraged me to
> pro-actively attack problems rather than wait for fixes. Ultimately
> allowing me to feel a direct part of the Gentoo community, even if I'm
> only hacking my system.
>
> Now what if the portage on end user systems retained a XML text file
> format similar to the example below. This would give us the flexibility of
> text, as it is readable by the normal human, while at the same time
> machine friendly. The example below is just a quick idea how a ebuild file
> might look in an XML portage system.
>
> Example XML file for a package:
>
> <package>
> <name></name>
> <version></version>
> <size></size>
> <homepage></homepage>
> <license></license>
> <portage_release_date></portage_release_date>
> <slot></slot>
> <ebuild_comment></ebuild_comment>
> <description>
>     <keywords></keywords>
>     <abstract>one line info text</abstract>
>     <full_text>full about text</full_text>
>     <ebuild_comment></ebuild_comment>
> </description>
> <dependency>
>     <name></name>
>     <version></version>
>     <mandatory>yes or no</mandatory>
>     <reason>why it might be good to have this</reason>
> </dependency>
> <ebuild_commands>
>     <ebuild_comment></ebuild_comment>
>     <pkg_setup>
>           <ebuild_comment></ebuild_comment>
>           <commands></commands>
>     </pkg_setup>
>     <src_unpack></src_unpack>
>     <src_compile></src_compile>
>     <src_install></src_install>
>     <pkg_preinst></pkg_preinst>
>     <pkg_postinst></pkg_postinst>
>     <pkg_prerm></pkg_prerm>
>     <pkg_postrm></pkg_postrm>
>     <pkg_config></pkg_config>
> </ebuild_commands>
> </package>
>
> The nice thing about XML is it could also be used with the plugin idea,
> allowing for a intermediate structured format for transfer between the
> gentoo servers/mirrors and the end user system. Backends are given the
> data in a format they can parse through without to much trouble and you
> could also export a ebuild out in a structured format perhaps allowing for
> remote submission of ebuilds.
>
> Now that I'm thinking about it you could have two XML package template
> versions, detailed and optimised versions. The detailed version would be
> as shown above containing absolutely everything about the ebuild. The
> optimised version would contain just minimum elements needed for the
> portage system. This would have the secondary effect of having optimised
> mirrors which only have those bare bones ebuild files....
>
> I'm rambling so I'll end this. Thoughts? Flames? Expressive Grunts?
>
>
> --
> Brian
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list


--
gentoo-dev@g.o mailing list