On Wed, 2022-11-23 at 15:37 +0100, Michał Górny wrote: > > > PMS doesn't say anything about (new-style) virtuals. It's a Gentoo > policy entirely.
This is listed as a retroactive change, Note: A ‘new-style virtual’ is a normal package that installs no files and uses its dependency requirements to pull in a ‘provider’. > Do you have any specific concerns about having an extra category? > I'm not aware of any real costs involved, or real reasons to use > categories scarcely. > > ... > > I don't really care how it's named. I've chosen "sys-" because in my > PoC it happens to control tools that are part of the base system. > I suppose we could also want it for less important stuff like notify- > send (though I guess I'll lastrite that eselect anyway). I think we > should just use one category for all of them, and I'm open to a > better name. The main reason the new category is distasteful to me is because it's *so close* to being a virtual. For one, having these packages be virtuals would make them somewhat self-explanatory to end users. If we're collectively willing to overlook the "no files" bit, are there any other reasons to avoid using virtual/ ? Regardless, since I specifically called out the "meta" suffix, let me put forward sys-alternatives as an alternative.
