| 1 |
On Monday 22 December 2008 15:43:24 Stroller wrote: |
| 2 |
> On 22 Dec 2008, at 11:33, Daniel Pielmeier wrote: |
| 3 |
> > ... |
| 4 |
> > The problem was that the dvdnav USE-flag was masked and you unmasked |
| 5 |
> > the mplayer and dvdnav packages in the first place. This did not |
| 6 |
> > affect the mplayer package that was built without dvdnav support as |
| 7 |
> > the flag was still deactivated. Here [1] is some information from the |
| 8 |
> > maintainer of mplayer. |
| 9 |
> |
| 10 |
> Yes, although I did understand this already. With apologies to Mr Wong |
| 11 |
> I find your explanation much clearer than his. |
| 12 |
> |
| 13 |
> I would prefer it if Portage handled this without USE flag masking |
| 14 |
> being necessary. If the required package is masked, or needs some |
| 15 |
> other keyword, then IMO `emerge -p mplayer` should simply give an |
| 16 |
> "unable to fulfil this USE - packages may be masked or keyworded" |
| 17 |
> error. IMO `emerge mplayer` should simply install the package without |
| 18 |
> fulfilling the USE. But clearly there are reasons why this is |
| 19 |
> impractical. |
| 20 |
|
| 21 |
Not so much impractical, more like it's a very bad idea. Portage runs on unix |
| 22 |
systems. Of all the basic fundamental ways unix has of going about things, |
| 23 |
this one should never be broken: |
| 24 |
|
| 25 |
The machine will do what the admin said it must do. It will do no more and no |
| 26 |
less. |
| 27 |
|
| 28 |
An active USE means that the admin wants packages built with that support. The |
| 29 |
admin's wishes are very explicit in this regard, there is nothing implied |
| 30 |
about it. So if the USE cannot be fulfilled, the only appropriate answer |
| 31 |
is "I'm sorry, I cannot do that" and end with an error code. |
| 32 |
|
| 33 |
|
| 34 |
-- |
| 35 |
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |
Archives