Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Machine completely broken; Ncursed!

[Alan McKinnon]

On 13/04/2015 03:38, »Q« wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2015 21:24:48 -0400
> Alec Ten Harmsel <alec@××××××××××××××.com> wrote:
>
>> On 04/12/2015 09:15 PM, »Q« wrote:
>>>
>>> Before you pore through it, I guess I should point out that it's not
>>> causing me any problems -- I was just curious about why it would be
>>> a bad idea for me to manage those PYTHON_* variables myself.  I
>>> guess the most notable thing about my make.conf is that I'm one of
>>> those crazy USE="-*" people.
>>
>> It's not a bad idea to manage the PYTHON_TARGETS,
>> PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET, and RUBY_TARGET variables if you *need* a
>> specific version of python or ruby. If you do not, I would say it is
>> bad. These are set in the profile so that the maintainers can decide
>> when to update to a new stable version. Since all of the various
>> python and ruby libraries are installed from source, it's generally a
>> good idea to wait for the maintainers to stabilize a certain version
>> since that means the library support is also good.
>
> How can I find out whether the profile is setting those variables?
> ISTM the emerge errors I posted earlier, which happen if I get rid of
> those variables in make.conf, indicate that they are not being set at
> all.
>
> When a new version of python (or ruby, I guess) is stabilized,  I do
> have to spend some time making sure those variables are sanely set, and
> I'd rather just leave it up to the devs.
>
>> Also, using the KDE profile and having USE="-*" seem contrary. One of
>> the main reasons to use a profile is to get a relevant set of USE
>> flags.
>
> I don't want the profile's USE flags, but I still thought it best to
> select the profile that matches what I use the machine for.


A profile is indeed intended to match the intended use of the machine,
and to do that it does two things:

- enables or disables some software (the minor feature)
- sets some sane default USE (the major feature)

USE="-*" essentially undoes the profile entirely rendering it useless.
You'd be better off just setting your profile to default and doing all
the heavy lifting yourself instead of going with the maintainers
suggestions implemented in the profile.

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@×××××.com