1 |
One of the recurring problems we face in #gentoo is end users coming |
2 |
to us with confusing problems, and their problems are exacerbated |
3 |
because their default workflow ended up with them unmasking some ** |
4 |
version of perl. |
5 |
|
6 |
There is already a bug for this behaviour [1], and comments say that |
7 |
portage doing this is "a bug", but the situations which it occurs in |
8 |
are hard to diagnose what the "real problem" is. |
9 |
|
10 |
Much of the time, what has occurred is there was some other problem, |
11 |
and portage bodged its way around the real problem by choosing a |
12 |
solution that should be considered unacceptable, instead of presenting |
13 |
the real problem. |
14 |
|
15 |
Some of the time, the cause is as simple as a single package being |
16 |
installed that isn't in the @world dependency graph any more, which is |
17 |
tripping up portage slot-rebuild behaviour. |
18 |
|
19 |
In practice, what this currently means is that stable users end up |
20 |
installing *developmental/experimental* packages that exist only for |
21 |
experts and gentoo maintainers, and this is an unacceptable resolution. |
22 |
|
23 |
If this behaviour was being triggered by anything other than portage's |
24 |
dependency resolver failing, it would be considered a serious QA |
25 |
violation. |
26 |
|
27 |
Its understood that portage maintainers want to "fix" this behaviour so |
28 |
the problem doesn't occur, but until that can be done, the present |
29 |
default behaviour is actively harmful, and I suggest it be disabled by |
30 |
default until it can be guaranteed to give the right results. |
31 |
|
32 |
1: https://bugs.gentoo.org/658648 |