Re: [gentoo-dev] Optional Package Dependencies for netscape-flash -> libflashsupport

[Jim Ramsay]

Olivier Crête wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-11-05 at 12:12 -0600, Jim Ramsay wrote:
> > Josh Saddler wrote:
> > > Jim Ramsay wrote:
> > > > I suppose I could also propose:
> > > >
> > > > 4) netscape-flash just RDEPENDS on libflashsupport all the time.
> > > > It's certainly not a large library to be added on.
> > > >
> > >
> > > That is a terrible idea. Don't make it "depend" on something that
> > > it clearly does *not* depend on. Flash works just fine without the
> > > optional add-ons, and those are *definitely* optional. I've never
> > > needed libflashsupport and would prefer not seeing useless cruft
> > > attached to a perfectly working Flash installation.
> >
> > Point taken - If you don't want the extra features you don't want
> > libflashsupport at all.
> >
> > I could make it so that if all of the USE flags for libflashsupport
> > are turned off it doesn't actually install the library at all, just
> > gets added to the list of installed packages.
> >
> > > If you're going to add it to USE, then make sure it's *not* on by
> > > default, thanks.
> >
> > This way it will adhere to your current set of global USE flags. If
> > you have pulseaudio, esd, oss, ssl, or gnutls on globally, it will
> > install libflashsupport with the appropriate hooks in it.  If they
> > are all off (either globally or specifically for libflashsupport)
> > you will just get the same old netscape-flash with no add-ons.
> >
> > Is this a worthy compromise?
>
> This seems even worse.. I think either having one local use flag in
> netscape-flash is probably the best solution.. The second best is to
> have all of the use flags and RDEPEND on flash-support if any is
> enabled.

Can you explain what you mean by "even worse"?  I think my latest
solution is more correct than any of the others yet proposed.  In fact,
here's another small improvement on it:

Have netscape-flash with IUSE="vanilla" (by default it is off), which
when enabled will not pull in libflashsupport.

This meets the following goals:

1) It makes it easy for "regular" users to get netscape-flash with any
additions required by any global USE flags in exactly one step:
 - emerge netscape-flash
This is my #1 goal, otherwise I'd just have 'libflashsupport' as its
own separate package and those "in the know" would install it
separately if they want any of the extra features. But users should not
have to have special knowledge to get the features they have already
enabled in their global USE flags.

2) It makes it easy for "power" users to not have libflashsupport
actually install anything by disabling all the USE flags.  This will
take 3 steps:
- Notice at upgrade or install time that there's this new 'extra'
package being installed
- Enable the 'vanilla' flag for netscape-flash
- Continue with upgrade or install

Also, having all of the ssl/gnutls/pulseaudio/esd/oss flags turned off
for libflashsupport will have the effect of not actually installing the
library, so the only added cost there is one more entry in the list of
installed packages, which I hope you will agree is basically zero.

-- 
Jim Ramsay
Gentoo/Linux Developer (rox,gkrellm)