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On Sun, 29 Jan 2017 15:11:43 +0100 |
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Róbert Čerňanský <openhs@×××××××××.com> wrote: |
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> If I may add a user opinion. I agree with you but I would choose |
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> different solution for user-friendliness. Instead of _adding_ |
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> interactivity to PM I would _remove_ it. So if there would be |
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> multiple choices the user would not be prompted, but some default |
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> option would be selected by PM. To the user, such behaviour would be |
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> similar to current handling of virtuals - if a package depends on a |
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> virtual the user is not prompted to make a choice but the default is |
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> selected instead. |
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This. Exactly this. In fact, I would go even further. Let’s look at two |
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parallel situations. |
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Situation 1: app-cat/foo DEPENDs on dev-libs/bar. I want app-cat/foo. I |
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emerge app-cat/foo. Portage automatically installs dev-libs/bar. It |
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doesn’t require me to say anything about dev-libs/bar (though if I ask |
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to confirm before starting the build then it will mention it). I never |
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have to add dev-libs/bar to any user-maintained files |
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(i.e. /etc/portage/* or /var/lib/portage/world). If I ever uninstall |
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app-cat/foo, then dev-libs/bar will go away on its own when I depclean. |
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Situation 2: app-cat/foo DEPENDs on dev-libs/bar[baz]. I want |
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app-cat/foo. I emerge app-cat/foo. Portage… fails. It requires me to |
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manually add “dev-libs/bar baz” to /etc/portage/package.use/* (it will |
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do it itself, if desired, due to autounmask, but of course it puts it |
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in the wrong file because I like to keep things organized with multiple |
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files). That setting goes on living in /etc/portage, a user-maintained |
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area, forever. If I ever uninstall app-cat/foo, baz will stay set until |
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I eventually get around to slogging through /etc/portage/package.use |
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looking for things I can turn off because I don’t need them any more. |
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Why? It’s just another dependency. Why does DEPEND="dev-libs/bar" work |
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so beautifully but DEPEND="dev-libs/bar[baz]" work so horribly? If I |
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haven’t explicitly said I want baz, and I haven’t explicitly said I |
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*don’t* want baz, and enabling baz doesn’t conflict with any other |
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packages I have installed, Portage should just rebuild dev-libs/bar |
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with USE=+baz. If I eventually uninstall app-cat/foo, something like |
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depclean should reinstall dev-libs/bar with USE=-baz. Just like all the |
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other dependencies, if I don’t care to make a manual choice, it should |
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be automatic and dynamic. |
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-- |
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Christopher Head |
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