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On 08/13/2017 03:11 AM, Michael Orlitzky wrote: |
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> On 08/12/2017 10:52 PM, Duncan wrote: |
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>> |
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>> How so? Are you arguing that deciding to system-wide switch to/from |
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>> pulseaudio, systemd, or gstreamer is nonsense? |
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>> |
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> |
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> The meaning of any one USE flag varies widely across packages. I could |
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> never say "I want to enable USE=gstreamer" for every package in the |
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> tree, because I have no idea what it does for most of them. Setting |
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> USE=whatever globally essentially means "make random changes to my |
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> system" -- hence my wording. |
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> |
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> The meaning of a USE flag is per-package, so per-package is the only |
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> meaningful way to set them. |
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> |
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There are USE flag situations that are relevant at the global level. |
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systemd, pulseaudio, alsa, gstreamer, openssl/libressl, libav/ffmpeg, |
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vim-syntax, and so on. Then there's USE_EXPAND variables, which might |
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mean different things in different packages and yet I see nothing in |
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your argument covering them. |
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|
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These flags make perfect sense at the global level, because users |
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generally want support for the choices they make, and they make choices |
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on that *general* level first, before diving into package-specific USE |
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flags. It's a monumental waste of developer and user time to manually |
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set major USE flags in every relevant package. Some people are picky and |
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will still do that, but global USE ensures that certain assumptions are |
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made about your system. If you don't want assumptions, don't use global |
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USE. There's no reason to deprive others of functionality you don't |
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personally agree with or use. |
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Granted, some flags don't belong in make.conf. But part of Gentoo's |
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beauty is that we *do* let users proverbially saw their leg off, if |
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that's what they really want. There are lots of use cases that would be |
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made ridiculous in scope if we got rid of global USE. Is your only |
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answer a megabyte-long p.use file? |
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|
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That said, I like your idea of clearing up revbump decisions and the |
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angle of reducing development burden. This particular idea comes at too |
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high a cost for my taste, as we stand to lose functionality rather than |
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improve or gain it. |
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|
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~zlg |
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-- |
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Daniel Campbell - Gentoo Developer |
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OpenPGP Key: 0x1EA055D6 @ hkp://keys.gnupg.net |
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fpr: AE03 9064 AE00 053C 270C 1DE4 6F7A 9091 1EA0 55D6 |
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