On 15/03/2015 00:34, Rich Freeman wrote: > On Sat, Mar 14, 2015 at 6:08 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> >> But let's consider this: what level of chaos would arise if @system were >> dropped? Surely the problem of tracking all deps would get so out of >> hand so quickly, that @system or something equivalent would immediately >> be reinstated? >> > > I don't think so. Why don't other distros have this problem with > their source packages? They actually have more packages to deal with > since they don't have use flags and often split what is one Gentoo > package into many packages.
Other distros DO have the same problem, just framed differently. On Debian you need build-essential whether the source package declares it or not. Now what is build-essential, if not @system cloaked differently? Yes, @system has much more stuff in it and even some cruft, but both things fulfil the same function. In my experience the general approach from a binary distro is to tell you to install build-essential or equivalent if you want to compile stuff. If you forget, there's Google to remind you > You can still have virtuals when it makes sense to have them. > Automation might be an option in some cases as well. If a package > uses gcc and python, there is no reason that this couldn't be two > virtuals in addition to whatever specific libraries it requires. You > could also have virtuals for posix and such. > > We would also separate virtuals intended for user convenience (give me > a useful system, maybe including screen and ssh and such) from > virtuals intended for dependencies (you don't need screen and ssh to > build everything on the system). There is no reason that the default > install has to start with only the core dependencies, or with an empty > world set. I don't follow. How do virtuals connect with @system? Are you suggesting separating @system out into several more narrowly defined virtuals? I'm undecided on the wisdom of that approach. My own preference would be to replace @system with several regular sets -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
