Re: [gentoo-dev] [RFC] New QA policy: Packages must not disable installing manpages via USE flags

[Aaron Bauman]

On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 09:04:07PM -0400, Aaron Bauman wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 20, 2019 at 08:50:29PM +0300, Andrew Savchenko wrote:
> > On Wed, 17 Jul 2019 15:25:10 +0200 Michał Górny wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > The QA team would like to introduce the following policy:
> > >
> > > """
> > > Packages must not disable installing manpages via USE flags (e.g.
> > > USE=man or USE=doc).  If upstream does not ship prebuilt manpages
> > > and building them requires additional dependencies, the maintainer
> > > should build them and ship along with the package.
> > > """
> > >
> > >
> > > Explanatory note:
> > >
> > > This applies to having USE flags that specifically control building
> > > manpages.  It obviously does not affect:
> > >
> > > a. USE flags that disable building both a program and its manpage (e.g.
> > > if USE=gui disables building gfrobnicate, not installing gfrobnicate(1)
> > > is correct),
> > >
> > > b. use of LINGUAS to control installed manpages.
> > >
> > >
> > > Rationale:
> > >
> > > Manpages are the basic form of user documentation on Gentoo Linux.  Not
> > > installing them is harmful to our users.  On the other hand, requiring
> > > additional dependencies is inconvenient.  Therefore, packaging prebuilt
> > > manpages (whenever upstream doesn't do that already) is a good
> > > compromise that provides user with documentation without additional
> > > dependencies.
> > >
> > >
> > > What are your comments?
> >
> > The basic foundation of Gentoo is freedom of choise for our users.
> > If installing man pages means no additional dependencies, than
> > proposed rule is ok. However if such dependencies are required it is
> > up to users to decide if they wan them or not.
> >
> > Having USE=man (or USE=doc) for such purposes is fine. Having
> > USE=man enabled by default in user profile is also fine. Forcing
> > users to install unnecessary dependencies on minimal systems in a
> > no go and turns Gentoo into something else.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Andrew Savchenko
>
> I am going to divert topics here... "freedom"... like freedom to post on a
> mailing list without restriction (e.g. whitelisting) ?
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Aaron

All, my response above was reported to COMREL as "Pure troll/provocation
off-topic on gentoo-dev"

My intent here was to challenge bircoph's apparent contradictions of "freedom"
of choice and "freedom" of posting on mailing lists.

I apologize for appearing to troll/provoke anyone.

-- 
Cheers,
Aaron