On Tue, 25 Jun 2013 18:31:05 -0400, Walter Dnes wrote: > A few years ago the developers, "in their infinite wisdom", decided to > enable the ipv6 USE flag by default. I found out "the hard way", when > internet-enabled apps like Firefox sat there, spinning their wheels for > a minute, before timing out the IPV6 lookup and falling back to IPV4. > Since then, I have always done a --pretend update run and check the > output, before doing the real update. And I've switched to beginning my > USE variable with "-*".
So, on the basis of one decision that affected you slightly adversely some years ago, you have exposed yourself to several years of extra work and breakage by disabling a key portage feature? I don't understand why your IPv4 only system had problems with apps trying to use IPv6, as that couldn't happen unless you had enabled IPv6 in the kernel. This problem was commonplace a few years ago with binary distros, caused by crappy router firmware that couldn't handle IPv6, so the thing just hung until the kernel timed out and fell back to IPv4. I don't see how USE="-*" would fix either your router or your kernel configuration. > There is the option of setting USE="-ipv6" the more timid users. I > don't understand the point of defaulting to IPV6. The vast majority of > Gentoo users probably still run IPV4-only. Because it only has an effect if you have already enabled IPv6 in your kernel, and then only causes a problem with broken hardware. So a pretty sensible option, although one I chose not to take when I noticed the change in the output of emerge --ask. As has already been said, you should always check such output, but it is even more important to do so after switching profiles, which is the only way the default USE flags change. -- Neil Bothwick Oxymoron: Reagan memoirs.
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