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I'm trying to write a Replicator for /etc/portage and that leads me to |
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work with USE flags, trying to design the replication of them among |
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similar systems, but I can't find the golden set of rules for how best |
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to apply USE flags. |
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There seem to be a global/local USE flag system, but many so called |
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global flags has duplicated description marking them as local flags, or |
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they enable unneeded optional support. |
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Lets take one of the big ones python. This use flag enables optional |
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python support in many packages, I don't see my system ever using the |
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python support in most of these. Seems like it really should be a local |
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pr. packet flag for most, a pythonapi flag perhaps. |
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There is also a few cases where package X requires package Y to be |
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compiled with an USE flag, but no testing is being done in the ebuild |
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for it and the compilation fails. Example gnome-system-tools requires |
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libxml2 to be compiled with python support. |
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|
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Then there is flags like alsa, it's marked as a global flag and then |
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virtualbox also has it marked as a local flag. I personally think |
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virtualbox is somewhat right in saying it's a local flag, but perhaps it |
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would be better if the flag didn't have a double meaning. |
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As I see it, Gentoo's USE flag system is one of it's greatest strength, |
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but at the moment seems like there is missing some overall design for |
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how to implement USE flags, making it a lot harder to use USE flags, as |
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there is no clear definition of global or local flags. |