Re: [gentoo-dev] Some suggestions

[Luke-Jr]

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On Saturday 06 September 2003 06:05 pm, David Sankel wrote:
> 1)  etc-update changes for a more automated system update
>
> etc-update allows you to automatically update (noted) etc files that one
> never changed from their last emerge.  This could save a lot of
> maintenance time if it was put in a cron job to routinely do that after
> an "emerge sync;emerge -u world"
>   The user then wouldn't have to look at all of the etc files to see
> if they were changed after every "emerge sync; emerge-u world".
I agree. etc-update should, at very least, check modify dates on files and if 
they haven't been changed, simply replace them...
>
> 2)  make.conf updates to be more automated
>
> Most gentoo users, I believe, modify this file.  This specific file changes
> quite often with updates.  Since most users only modify the "USE" and
> "CFLAGS" components, having an update that is automatic is plausible.  This
> feature is a trade off between the integrity and consistency of the system
> verses end-user maintenance time.
It might be a good idea to setup some kind of system where etc-update can be 
told *how* to update certain files. Maybe something like 
"/etc/.__update_make.conf" could be run as a script...
>
> 3) emerge -u world "NOTICE:" output changes.
>
> When doing an "emerge -u world" several "NOTICE:"'s fly by on the screen.
> For many users, they go unread although they contain important information
> in a lot of cases.  If these "NOTICE:"'s are cached and output at the end
> of an "emerge -u world", their readership would have a dramatic increase.
> This would allow interested gentoo users to be more informed of their
> system.
I believe something like this is already being setup to some extent. Likely it 
will simply be sent to a new stream or something so it can be easilly logged 
and displayed later.
>
> 4) emerge -u world progress bar option
>
> Most users probably care less about the compilation stages of their update
> in comparison to the percentage of completion.  A progress bar in this
> area would be a nice aesthetic and informative addition for most users.
> In order for this to happen, the output of the "emerge -u world" command
> would probably have to be standardized with some flags to mark the
> beginning and end of a compile.
I believe the -v option provides stuff scripts can look for...
>
> 5) A simple graphical front end to maintenance commands such as "emerge
> sync", "emerge -u world", and "etc-update".
>
> It would be a nice feature if users didn't have to commit these commands
> to memory for regular maintenance.  The maintenance menu might have an
> icon on all of the default desktops.  If this type of program was
> implemented, it could be prominently displayed and made known for all new
> users.  Perhaps the install documentation could use this tool as much as
> possible.
I'm not sure, but wouldn't KPortage have something like this?
>
> 6) A streamlined GUI install.
>
> I'm sure this one has been brought up before.  I consider this the "1.0"
> maker of the gentoo distribution.  In such an installer, I suggest that
> the CFLAGS should not be modified by default.  It has been shown in
> several places that optimizing these does not give a significant enough
> performance increase.  It should stay, of course, as an option though.
Gentoo is currently at 1.4. 1.0 was quite a while ago. I am working on a GUI 
install for computer newbies, and I believe the GLIS project is working on a 
GUI for more experienced users...
>
> 7) Emerge -S and Emerge -s speed improvements.
>
> I don't know why these commands perform as slow as they do.  My intuition
> says that they could be an order of magnitude faster.  Perhaps a
> reimplementation in C/C++ or a data format change could help.
I doubt the language would improve the speed at all. I'm not sure why it's 
slow, but it could very well be I/O access... grepping the Portage tree isn't 
any faster.
- -- 
Luke-Jr
Developer, Gentoo Linux
http://www.gentoo.org/
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