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On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 1:05 PM, Bruce Hill, Jr. |
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<daddy@×××××××××××××××××××××.com> wrote: |
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> These virtual apps are irritating me, and the fanboi answers in #gentoo |
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> are worse. |
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> |
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> What is the purpose of virtual/shadow and why would I want it? |
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Virtual packages are kind of an abstraction layer for compatible |
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alternative packages. Other packages can depend on the virtual instead |
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of depending on every combination of possible alternatives, and the |
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user can install whichever of the alternatives he prefers. |
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For example, MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL. From a |
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dependency standpoint, they are compatible. Instead of any program |
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depending on MySQL being modified to check for either MySQL or |
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MariaDB, virtual/mysql was created and it can be satisfied by either |
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dev-db/mysql or dev-db/mariadb being installed. |
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In the case of shadow, he new virtual is to allow you to use either |
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sys-apps/shadow or sys-apps/hardened-shadow. See here: |
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http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/gentoo/dev/249394 |
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If you view the virtual package's ebuild, this line is the key: |
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RDEPEND="|| ( >=sys-apps/shadow-4.1 sys-apps/hardened-shadow )" |
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HTH :) |
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