Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: multilib amd64 news item for review

[Andrew Savchenko]

On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 19:43:51 +0200 Michał Górny wrote:
> Dnia 2015-03-29, o godz. 20:35:27
> Andrew Savchenko <bircoph@g.o> napisał(a):
>
> > On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 19:28:22 +0200 Michał Górny wrote:
> > > > If this is not the case, and "*/* abi_x86_32" in package.use really does
> > > > something different, then this is implemented in a way too confusing for
> > > > people and should be considered a bug :-/
> > >
> > > Yes, USE support in make.conf is a big pile of random misbehaviors
> > > and bugs that need to be killed with fire.
> >
> > The proposal above is an absolute madness, especially for global
> > USE flags.
> >
> > Why users should deal with dozens (if not hundreds useless */*)?
>
> To get sane, consistent and predictable config for a start. But you
> know that you can specify multiple flags on one line, right?

I'm well aware of that..

> In fact, '*/* ' is shorter than 'USE=""'!

Only for short sets. For a long list of USE flags right now I have:
USE="
flag1
-flag2
flag3
...
flag433
"

This is an easily maintainable list, which is alphabetically sorted
(it is trivial to do in vim).

Why 433 flags? Because for flags common to more than a single
package I don't want to duplicate them. For unique flags I have 225
entries (with comments) in package.use.

With your proposal I have three alternatives:

1.
*/* long list of 433 flags

Hard to read, hard to maintain, no benefits.

2.
*/* flag1
*/* -flag2
*/* flag3
...
*/* flag433

A lot of useless stuff, no benefits.

3.
*/* \
flag1 \
-flag2 \
flag3 \
... \
flag433

A lot of useless stuff, no benefits, easy to make mistake (e.g.
forgot "\" after a new flag and have a lot of stuff broken).

Best regards,
Andrew Savchenko