Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: [RFC] New GLEP: file installation masks

[Michał Górny]

On Wed, 8 Jun 2016 07:26:21 +0200
Ulrich Mueller <ulm@g.o> wrote:

> >>>>> On Fri, 20 May 2016, Michał Górny wrote:
>
> > Sometime around a year ago, I started working on extending
> > INSTALL_MASK to support well-defined locations. The work was never
> > finished, and I just found my old specification for it. I've cleaned
> > it up a bit, and extended it into a complete GLEP covering
> > INSTALL_MASK [1].
>
> > Please review the specification provided. The basic goal is to
> > provide an ability to use INSTALL_MASK alike USE flags -- with path
> > groups that are well-defined and described in the repository.
>
> Sorry, I am late in the game. (Or maybe not, since the GLEP doesn't
> yet have a number.)
>
> The GLEP says that path groups always apply globally. So the
> install-mask.conf file is not "alike layout.conf" (as the GLEP claims)
> because its scope is not restricted to the repository where it is
> stored. And in turn this can lead to name collisions ("Duplicate
> groups [...] are considered an error").
>
> Therefore I think that repository metadata is the wrong place for
> storing the install-mask.conf file. It is configuration, specific to
> Portage (but not to the repository), so /usr/share/portage/config/
> would be a better location to store it.

...which would mean we have to re-release Portage every time it
changes, which in turn means we can't do anything without having shout
at users to upgrade Portage, and upgrade, and upgrade...

systemd uses new path? Upgrade Portage. We support a new localization?
Upgrade Portage. We failed horribly and your system no longer boots?
Upgrade Portage.

-- 
Best regards,
Michał Górny
<http://dev.gentoo.org/~mgorny/>