Re: [gentoo-dev] GLEP 32: Maildir location

[Georgi Georgiev]

maillog: 04/11/2004-11:05:08(+0900): Georgi Georgiev types
> I don't know what the proper procedure for accepting a GLEP is, so does
> anyone have anything to comment on here?
>
> I know the wording in the GLEP is not very smooth, but I always hated
> literature classes.
>
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0032.html

I have a comment I'd like an opinion on.

In http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52076#c4 Mr.Goodyear says:

  I think this idea is a good one (although I would prefer that the
  default maildir location be specified in rc.conf instead of
  make.conf).

I did not have any reasons to prefer make.conf over rc.conf, so I
submitted a GLEP with /etc/rc.conf as the location. However, the way I
see it, the MAILDIR variable changes the way packages are compiled
and/or installed. I remember I've seen something about the importance of
being able to reinstall a Gentoo system in a consistent manner. What one
needs for this purpose was a copy of:

  - /etc/make.conf
  - /etc/portage
  - /var/lib/portage/world

I don't think that /etc/rc.conf was mentioned in that list, but I am not
sure that there was such a list in the first place. Since there are
tools like webapp-config and kernel-config we're probably way past the
point of taking care of consistency in only a few well defined places.

I'd like to hear the opinion of a developer on these points:

- Is consistency an issue?
- How is it defined (what files do we need to keep, if at all)?
- What I really want to know is "Is there a good reason why the location
  where the MAILDIR variable is defined be rc.conf or make.conf or some
  other place?".

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