Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Build dependencies and upgrades.

[Rich Freeman]

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 7:27 PM, Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@×××.net> wrote:
> That's probably why there's no mention in the docs other than the portage
> manpage.  Now that we have swift back, he's applying some much needed
> attention to the docs tree and its coming back into shape. =:^)

I definitely agree that the docs probably need a little improvement.

Our docs should suggest to users the safest behavior for somebody who
doesn't know what they're doing.  That is, the behavior that leads to
the fewest bug reports or list posts or general complaints.  By all
means give them less safe alternatives with some educational material
(we empower our users).  However, the first thing presented should be
the safest default behavior.

That leads me to another concern.  The defaults should be the safe
options, and the options should be to make the actions less safe.

In my thinking the most conservative options right now are either
emerge -uDN world or emerge -uDN --with-bdeps=y world.

I'd almost prefer to see that -D, -N, and --with-bdeps go away, and
that instead we add options like --shallow, --ignoreusechanges, and
--without-bdeps be added (ok, those are lousy names but you get the
picture).  The default without any option should be to do the "right"
thing for most people, and specifying an option should be to make the
system do something less conservative.

I just think about Debian where you tell people run "apt-get update"
and then "apt-get upgrade" and that is it.  Their typical behavior is
not specifying anything and you get everything updated.  With Gentoo
the equivalent is "emerge world" but when you do that you potentially
miss a lot of stuff.

(And I realize the --with-bdeps part of this is debatable.)

Rich