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On Fri, Aug 12, 2005 at 12:04:34PM -0400, Kristian Benoit wrote: |
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> I remember, when I started using Gentoo, reading that portage is a stand |
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> alone tool, it is not bind into Gentoo in anyway, someone could use it |
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> on redhat, debian, lfs... |
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Nice intention, but impossible with stable/alpha code- the |
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abstractions are missing. No config abstractions, but more |
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importantly no format abstractions; no true package object. |
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> Back then I was using lfs so I thought portage could be the way to go on |
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> lfs, but I realized that Gentoo fit my needs and I did'nt have to |
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> compile everything by hand anymore and still have everything compiled by |
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> my machines :) OH JOY !!! |
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Heh, came via the route I did... |
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> But 5 years or so later, the only official place to get portage releases |
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> is still in the gentoo mirrors. There is no RSS feed or anything like |
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> that. I still believe that portage has the potential to be so powerful |
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> that redhat, debian, ... could be building their packages using portage, |
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> managing their own tree, having night build. |
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> |
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> The problem is see, is that the initial portage vision (or perhaps my |
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> initial vision, a vision I still have) has not been carried along with |
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> it's developpement. |
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The vision got blocked by the implementation. Try busting all of the |
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globals out of portage, then abstracting all ebuild specific actions |
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(doebuild) behind package apis, so that different formats can be |
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swapped on the fly. Hell, binding dbapi and *tree classes together |
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into one, and having them properly inherited from a base is required, |
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rather then lots of duplicated code. |
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From there, how do you represent the *depends of a package, so that |
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the resolver can be reused across different configurations of package |
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format (this box being rpm, that being ebuild fex); need to break it |
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down into restrictions, handing the actual depends matching off to |
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repositories, with the resolver shifting sets of returned |
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packages/restrictions around to build up a graph. |
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Either way, look at |
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gentoo-src/portage/portage and |
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gentoo-src/portage/rewrite-misc |
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Work is underway, help is needed, jump in and start digging :) |
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The design *should* allow for lots of crazy crap, although anyone who |
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sees a flaw please speak up now :) |
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> Having an official web site, doc, ... will help getting visibility and |
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> effort from the rest of the world thus we'll have better tools and |
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> eventually extend portage beyond Gentoo. |
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API for tools, a *sane* api moreso :) |
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~harring |
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