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Hi, |
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I have a question about masked USE flags and packages in the |
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testing branch. I have a problem with "sci-biology/emboss", a |
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sequence analysis package I maintain that was keyworded ~amd64 a |
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few days ago. Six packages (containing various genetic and |
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biological data) in the tree have optional EMBOSS support that |
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may be enabled using the corresponding USE flag. EMBOSS PDEPENDs |
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on these six packages, because they are necessary for a complete |
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EMBOSS installation but cannot be installed before EMBOSS as |
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they have to be indexed using EMBOSS programs. |
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|
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These six packages in turn depend on EMBOSS, but only if optional |
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EMBOSS support is turned on. The reason is these packages may be |
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used without EMBOSS (although that is rarely the case, some |
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users appreciate that and I do not want to force over 200 |
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programs on someone just for installing a small amino acid |
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properties database). |
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|
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The end result is that in order to have EMBOSS work on a given |
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arch, the six depending packages must also be keyworded, *and* |
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the emboss USE flag must be enabled by default. Otherwise, the |
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users would be left with the PDEPENDencies built without EMBOSS |
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support, and many EMBOSS programs (some of which are very |
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important and popular) would be broken. |
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|
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The problem is that on amd64, the "emboss" USE flag is still |
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masked and is not in the default USE flags like it is for other |
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arches that support EMBOSS (see bug #105086 [1]). I was told |
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that demasking USE flags is only done when packages hit the |
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stable branch. (I do not know why and would appreciate an |
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explanation.) It also seems that architecture conditional |
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dependencies are deprecated. I still believe that unmasking the |
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keyword would not break anything since no amd64 stable package |
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has optional EMBOSS support and, of course, no such package |
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should be stabilised until EMBOSS itself is stable. |
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|
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The bottom line is EMBOSS is currently keyworded ~amd64 but |
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broken on amd64. This is a known bug and should be easy to fix, |
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but if we cannot demask the USE flag or use architecture |
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conditional dependencies, I really have no idea how to fix this. |
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Thoughts or suggestions anyone? |
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|
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[1] http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=105086 |
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|
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-- |
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Olivier Fisette (ribosome) |
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Gentoo Linux Developer |
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Scientific applications, Developer relations |
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