Re: [gentoo-user] world favorites: pros and cons

[Daniel da Veiga]

On 7/5/06, Daniel Iliev <danny@××××××××.com> wrote:
> Daniel da Veiga wrote:
>
> > You're manually doying stuff that portage should do. This breaks
> > portage system, gives you more trouble (because you have to manually
> > "undo" stuff in order to not break your dependency list) and have
> > turned the whole dependency check lists and ebuils dependency check
> > useless. A "emerge --update --deep world" for you is a "emerge world".
> > You put some of the work of portage on your own hands, don't be
> > surprised if that breaks something.
> >
>
> OK. I agree that "my way" makes "emerge --update --deep world" equal to
> "emerge --update world". Then what is the original purpose of "emerge
> --update world"?
>

I'll just quote the "emerge" man page, that is pretty clear there:

--update (-u)
              Updates  packages  to  the best version available, which may not
              always be the highest version number due to masking for  testing
              and  development.   This  will  also  update direct dependencies
              which may not be what you want.  In  general,  use  this  option
              only in combination with the world or system target.

Note the words "DIRECT dependencies". So, your command "emerge
--update --deep world" is in fact just "emerge world", because every
direct/indirect dependency is part of your world file. Your "way" made
"--update" useless, because a simple "emerge <package>" would update
the package.

--deep (-D)
              When used in conjunction with --update, this flag forces  emerge
              to  consider  the entire dependency tree of packages, instead of
              checking only the immediate dependencies of the packages.  As an
              example, this catches updates in libraries that are not directly
              listed in the dependencies of a package.

So, you "way" also made "--deep" useless.
This flags are there because they mantain portage in a way that you
can't easily break consistency by accident, and with that I mean
libraries and indirect dependencies.

I'm not arguing that your system WILL break by putting every single
atom of package installed in world, I just say that you are going
against portage evolution by doying its work, and that MAY cause
problems.

Also, the world file is a simple way to keep a package version (by
removing it from world), for instance, I don't wanna upgrade mysql
with my nightly "emerge -uDN world", so, its not in my world file.

Also note that "indirect" dependencies can be a pain, and packages may
depend on a LOT of other packages, if you want an example, check
"emerge -euDt links -pv". You can check indirect dependencies! I just
say there are quite a few, and portage knows how to deal with all this
stuff (at least never proved me wrong).

-- 
Daniel da Veiga
Computer Operator - RS - Brazil
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