[gentoo-dev] rfc: checking properties in ebuilds and eclasses

[William Hubbs]

All,

I would like to start a discussion on checking the PROPERTIES value in
ebuilds. Specifically this could be used to check for live ebuilds
instead of assuming that the version number of an ebuild indicates
whether the ebuild is live.

The up side of this would be that we aren't reserving a specific version
number for live ebuilds.

The down side that is being pointed out to me right now is that
we would need a function like in_iuse, but called in_properties, to
check the properties. We would need something like this because
properties supports use conditionals, e.g.
PROPERTIES="foo? ( bar )"

I suppose another downside (and I do this, so I would have to adapt) is
that you couldn't really use one ebuild for a release and a live ebuild
at the same time any longer.A

Does anyone else have any thoughts about this?

Thanks,

William