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IUSE defaults are used in a few different ways: |
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1 To ensure that critical functionality is enabled. |
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* Example: force the "unix" module for apache. |
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2 To avoid an unsatisfied REQUIRED_USE by default. |
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* Example: having a non-empty RUBY_TARGETS by default. |
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3 To make Gentoo defaults the upstream defaults. |
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* Example: right now the defaults for dev-lang/php build |
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you a "normal" PHP installation. |
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4 To make the default build agree with the maintainer's personal |
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preferences. |
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* Example: enabling hpn in net-misc/openssh by default. |
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We don't have a policy for how to use them, so we get all four in the |
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tree. I don't think there are any downsides to #1. |
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The downside to #2 is that the default choice may be wrong, but the |
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benefit outweighs that. For a given package, the user either cares about |
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the USE flags or he doesn't (if it's some deep dependency). Both cases |
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turn out fine in #2. |
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A bigger problem arises from #3 and #4: it's no longer simple to get a |
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minimal system. When various USE flags default on at random, you get |
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users doing things like USE="-*". We can tell them not to do that, |
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because of the flags in #1, but in fact very few IUSE defaults are |
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critical, and most of them are junk. The only way to turn off all the |
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junk ones without a huge waste of time is USE="-*". |
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Can we discourage IUSE defaults except for #1 and #2? I'm equally guilty |
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of #3 and #4, but I now regret them. I would also like to see |
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explanations in metadata.xml of why +flags are on by default. |
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