[UM-LINUX] [semi-OT] Gentoo EBuilds (was: Installing Bochs)

[Phil Anderson]

Sorry for the de-rail, but the bit about being bitten by gentoo ebuilds made me think of something.
This letter is long, rant-ish, and at points quite specific so i'll give an executive summary:

Short version:

1. Do not upgrade the apache ebuild to the latest 2.* versions without reading this:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/apache-upgrading.xml
2. don't use e-builds for web applications like phpmyadmin. (seems pointless I agree but they do exist.)

Long version:

For the love of $deity, do NOT upgrade apache if you haven't read this document:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/apache-upgrading.xml

not sure what version it took effect in, but let me tell you, I went ahead and did so without reading that, and as a result had to spend the next two hours fixing configuration file chaos because the website wouldn't come back up until I did. And it was hell.

On that note, if you emerge things like phpmyadmin, they require this awful package called webapp-config. The idea is that net-config offers a general framework for installing web applications (phpmyadmin and I'd imagine CMS software too), so you can standardize documentroot, etc., by changing one config file. But, you have to edit the webapp-config conf file with the proper http document root, before you emerge anything that uses it, otherwise it'll be wrong. And, if you just type "emerge phpmyadmin" it will emerge PMA after webapp-config without giving you a chance to edit the file, so you'll have to unemerge PMA, edit the file, and then re-emerge it.

I'm not really sure why one would use the ebuild of phpmyadmin, honestly - it's easier just to untar and copy the files. but it's just a heads up, because it caused me some anguish a few weeks back. webapp-config is a neat idea, but it's just really not that useful imo - it's like a meta-package manager of sorts. I guess it's useful for things like keeping up to date with the latest versions of web applications (*cough* phpbb anyone?) but most of the time it's just another layer of useless gunk.

I still love gentoo (beats hell out of RPMs imho) but these little things really got to me. I understand why they changed the apache config, because it *was* kind of non-standard, but they really didn't make it clear, at least not to me. they should have blocked the package or something to make you manually read the upgrade document. I do prefer to use ebuilds when I can, though, because they generally play nice with everything else I have installed, whereas if I install something from source, other packages that require it may not find it, etc etc...

anyway, that's my 47.3 cents. sorry for the semi-OT essay.

-phil