Re: [gentoo-dev] removing the server profiles...

[Rich Freeman]

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 5:53 PM, Panagiotis Christopoulos
<pchrist@g.o> wrote:
> Err, ok, so now guys, we 're offering a base profile* with dri, cups, gmp,
> fortran and pppd(?) enabled, at the same time openmp enabled but threads
> disabled, no sockets, no caps no apache2 or mysql that I would probably
> want if I wanted to build a server box etc. and we officially drop the
> server profiles (which is true, they're unmaintained for ages).

Keep in mind that the current server profile has all the problems you
just listed as well.

Oh, and keep in mind that flags really only have an effect if the
corresponding packages are actually installed.  For example, the cups
flag doesn't really have an effect unless you install apps that do
printing, so it seems pretty safe to leave in a minimal profile (would
you really want to install libreoffice, chromium, or foomatic and not
have cups support?).  The only non-desktopy package I see that uses
cups is samba, and if you're setting up a samba server there is a
decent chance you'd want cups anyway.

So, I wouldn't equate minimal as -*.  I think that it makes sense to
have use flags that result in a very conservative installation of the
core packages (which isn't necessarily completely minimal), and which
don't pull in a lot of dependencies for other packages unless most
would want them anyway.

By all means point out use flags that actually do cause issues with
servers.  However, be careful about knee-jerk reactions.  Many flags
really do make sense in context - they don't do anything on a minimal
system, and when they do bring in dependencies they tend to be ones
you'd want anyway.

And, of course, when many of those profiles were first crafted there
were not package-level USE defaults, so that is something we can also
leverage to cut down on global flag settings (one way or the other).

Rich