[gentoo-dev] EBUILD_FORMAT support

[Sven Wegener]

Hi all!

We would like to introduce a new ebuild variable named EBUILD_FORMAT,
that tags the ebuild with a specific ebuild API version it provides or
uses. ebuilds will get an automatic dependency on a version of portage
that is required for the used API to work correctly. The mapping between
API and portage versions will be distributed with our portage tree.

There are some major ebuild API changes being discussed. These changes
need backward compatibility and the information from EBUILD_FORMAT can
be used to provide backward compatiblity in an easy way. It can be used
for the src_configure[1] support and it might as well be used to get
backward compatibility for the RDEPEND=DEPEND[2] changes.

Cheers,
Sven

[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/29510
[2] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/29509

-- 
Sven Wegener
Gentoo Developer
http://www.gentoo.org/