Re: [gentoo-dev] Change policy about live ebuilds

[Alexis Ballier]

On Thursday 25 November 2010 00:12:03 Dane Smith wrote:
> On 11/23/2010 08:30 PM, Mark Loeser wrote:
[...]
> > I'm personally against such a change and would infact like to see all
> > live packages nuked from the tree and moved to some experimental tree.
> > If you move them there, I don't care what policies you apply, but we
> > should try to maintain a solid set of working packages in the main tree,
> > which no one can guarantee with a live ebuild.  I know most people
> > aren't going to agree with me, but I felt the need to say it anyway.
>
> I know I'm still new around these parts, but I'll offer my two cents
> anyway. Take it for what you will.
>
> There are two mini-discussions I see going on:
> 1) Making the use of said 'live' ebuilds simpler and more convenient.
> 2) The purpose of live ebuilds and their eligibility to be in the tree.
[...]
> As to number two, I would be inclined to agree that perhaps they should
> be moved to a separate tree/overlay. I realize this is a major
> undertaking, and is probably less than feasible, however, I have never
> been a major fan of live ebuilds in the main tree. Either use a
> snapshot, or move it to an overlay. Live ebuilds are a QA nightmare and
> do not belong in the main tree. Only stable and experimental should be
> in there. If that occurs, the discussion can be rendered somewhat moot.
> KEYWORDS="" and no p.mask entry. They're in their own overlay, and
> there's no worries as far as stability or the main tree so the p.mask
> policy could safely be done away with.

There's no worry to have about stability or anything with empty keywords; 
whereas with overlays I'm always worried to find an ebuild that will turn off 
sandbox and rm -rf /, or do nasty things at global scope, etc.
I fail to understand why you claim that live ebuilds are a QA nightmare, you 
may want to have a look at how I play with, eg, ffmpeg or vlc and their live 
ebuilds: they make version bumps much easier and far less error prone.

A.