On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 02:59:32AM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote > How would your method of handling USE have assisted in preventing > that breakage? Please note that the breakage in jpeg is much *much* > more common than changes to default USE.
This is not about ipv6 or hal or dbus in particular. My approach is to only have the bare minimum necessary flags, and not allow *ANY NEW AND UNNECESSARY OPTIONAL* flags. Any additional extra "stuff" involves additional bloat and complexity, and a chance of breakage. If Dale had had "-*", a *NEW OPTIONAL* use flag (e.g. hal) would not have been implemented for X. Some other ebuild that had hal as a hard-coded dependancy might have pulled it, but X still wouldn't have linked to it. I can't fully browse the web without jpeg enebled, I get occasional jpeg photos in emails, and the camera club I belong to insists on all uploads being in jpeg format. So yes, jpeg is necessary *FOR ME*. I accept it into USE, because it of that. So far, I've done OK without ipv6, or hal, or dbus, and I will continue to do without them until/ unless they offer me additional functionality that I want/need. I do get the occasional complaint from emerge when application A requires that application B be emerged with a specific USE flag that I don't have enabled. If I want/need application A, then I will insert the required flag for application B into /etc/package.use. Once I see several entries for that flag in /etc/package.use, I'll run... USE="flag" emerge -pv --update --newuse world ...and see what else links to it. If it doesn't look bad, I'll move the flag into USE. -- Walter Dnes <waltd...@waltdnes.org>
