[gobolinux-devel] USE-flags vs. Flavored Dependencies

[Michael Homer]

On 7/9/07, mpb <mpb.mail at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/8/07, Michael Homer <gobo-users-dufus at wotfun.com> wrote:
>
> > That doesn't much help in the asking case, though. I don't like the
> > idea of asking questions during the [upgrade] flow, and I very definitely want
> > to know all the dependencies in advance of starting the compile.
> > Asking means the results from Freshen and Freshen -U might not be the
> > same, and requires repeating all the answers. But I'm not sure how
> > else to resolve conflicts, other than flat-out prioritising. Which
> > might not be so bad, come to think of it, so long as the profiles were
> > specific enough.
>
> I appreciate minimizing user choices during GoboLinux upgrades
> (perhaps simply remembering Dependency choices is sufficient?)
>
> However, with Compile on Rootless, choices and user-interactivity are
> a benefit, as they allow me to choose whether to satisfy each
> Dependency via either apt-get or Compile.  The primary motivation
> behind my proposal was the desire for the introduction of Required vs.
> Optional Dependencies, especially for use with Rootless, so that I
> could quickly and reliably skip Optional Dependencies.  All the rest
> was just imagining one possible way that idea could be extended.
That would be useful for Rootless, but I think it's something of a
separate topic - asking would be the general policy there, right? (if
it isn't already in ~/Programs). A flag to Compile (or an entry in
Compile.conf maybe) would make it prompt on all uninstalled
dependencies. Would that work for your use case?

I don't like the idea of prompting at all in the usual case. Flags are
there to make choices. When there's an actual conflict, it might be
ok, but I'd prefer just to (be able to) bail and have the situation be
resolved properly by the user.
-Michael