On Thu, 4 Feb 2016 13:01:25 +0100 Dirkjan Ochtman <d...@gentoo.org> wrote: [...] > The problem I have with it is that, as a user, it's yet another > concept to grasp and configure. Instead of just working with USE flags > (e.g. looking at use.desc or using ufed to review, configuring USE > flags in make.conf or package.use), I now have to find/learn a bunch > of new stuff. What packages use what USE_EXPAND things (e.g. apache > has two), what are valid values for all of these.
They're just useflags, equery properly displays their description, and you can set them in pacakge.use equally well, so you don't have to learn anything new. You get a new way to set them via variables in make.conf, which I agree is debatable, but doesn't add complexity. [...] > So if this cosmetic expansion is the only advantage, that seems like a > relatively limited one (e.g. it could be improved a lot just by > formatting), and the trade-off of introducing all this extra > complexity doesn't make that much sense to me. Well, categorizing useflags, esp. for packages with a lot of them, certainly helps me when I need to review what to enable and what not. Alexis.