Re: [gentoo-releng] USE flags and stages 1 and 2

[Chris Gianelloni]

On Mon, 2005-10-31 at 15:53 -0600, Jory A. Pratt wrote:
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> Chris Gianelloni wrote:
> > I'm starting to get more and more bugs from users whom have decided,
> > against the recommendation of those of us in Release Engineering, to do
> > a stage1 or stage2 installation using their custom USE flags, and
> > finding that their installation is unable to complete properly.  The
> > problem stems from more and more packages adding more and more USE
> > flags.  We already recommend that all users perform a stage3
> > installation, but this doesn't appear to be enough to resolve the
> > problem.  What it really boils down to is the inability for us to test
> > with all of the possible USE flag combinations and ever get a release
> > out the door.
> >
> > As it stands, I only see a few options, none of which sound very good:
> >
> > 1.  Only release stage3 tarballs
> > 2.  Inform users that only stage3 will be supported
> > 3.  Change the documentation to recommend users not change USE flags
> > until after the completion of "emerge -e system"
> >
> > In pretty much every case, the real answer is "quit using stage1 if you
> > don't know what you're doing" but unfortunately, we're going to get the
> > pointless "but Gentoo is about choice" "argument" that really has no
> > bearing on the truth of what is Gentoo.  Gentoo is *not* about choice.
> > Gentoo is about empowering the user to make the system as he sees fit.
> > This means there is a certain expectation that when you start fiddling
> > with stuff, you're going to pick up the pieces on your own.  At any
> > rate, the problem is only going to get worse as more and more USE flags
> > are added.
> >
> > What can we do to curb this problem?
> >
> I am in favor of doing nothing but putting a warning on stage1 and stage
> 2 saying only useflags that will be supported are ntpl ntplonly
> everything can and should be default IMHO. Then if they run into
> problems it is their problem and not ours. As much as we are about
> quality we still have a choice and if I choice a stage1 I do it for my
> own personal reasons. I am basically favoring do not edit useflags until
> stage3 if you make changes at this point you can use emerge -euD system
> - --newuse to rebuild packages to support your USE flags.

Have you read the bootstrap script?  Only nptl, nptlonly, nls, and
unicode are currently supported.  Everything else is filtered.

The problem is the "system" target having more and more packages that
have optional components with dependencies on things like a configured
kernel, which isn't done until well after the stage3 process is
completed.

-- 
Chris Gianelloni
Release Engineering - Strategic Lead
x86 Architecture Team
Games - Developer
Gentoo Linux