It would be nice if the USE flags could be organized in categories, so I could just choose "all stable multimedia codecs" or "every stable kopete plugin" for my arch. The categories could simply be files which could be sourced in make.conf to add USE flags to the USE environment setting. This could for example look like the following: codecs.stable.enable: Code: # Add Stable codecs to the USE flags USE="${USE} a52 aac aalib amrnb amrwb \ dts dv dvdnav flac \ ladspa libcaca mng mp2 musepack \ nemesi openal openexr pnm pvr \ real schroedinger speex theora \ v4l2 win32codecs x264 xanim xvid" make.conf: Code: source /usr/portage/profiles/arch/amd64/use.sets/codecs.stable.enable That way USE flags could far easier be found and maintained by Gentoo users (and when mplayer gets another codec, I wouldn't have to add it specifically. Once the codec gets stable, the next update would get it). Also people would have _more_ choice that way, because they wouldn't have to spend time on stuff they want in the same way as many others, but only on stuff they want clearly differently. There are rich multimedia desktops and lean programming desktops. And there are streaming media servers and E-Mail servers. With USE flag categories, both could be realized more easily. The same goes for IM plugins, network protocols and similar. I either want none, some selected few or all which are stable. The first case can be fulfilled by adding no USE flags and for the second case I already know exactly what I want, so the current architecture is well suited, too, but in the third case i regularly have to go USE flag hunting. This proposal would improve the third case while keeping the first and second working as they already do. Reproducible: Always Currently the USE flag setting in my make.conf looks like this: # from the Install USE="mmx sse sse2" # Basic additional USE flags USE="${USE} akonadi avahi bash-completion -bluetooth cdaudio cupsddk curl \ examples -gnome gnutls gpg gstreamer -gtk id3tag ipod \ mdnsresponder-compat mysql network offensive openal phonon -qt3 \ scanner semantic-desktop smartcard threads tk vhook webkit" # Additional codecs USE="${USE} a52 aac aalib amrnb amrwb \ dts dv dvdnav flac \ ladspa libcaca mng mp2 musepack \ nemesi openexr pnm pvr \ real schroedinger speex theora \ v4l2 win32codecs x264 xanim xvid" ## Stuff for kopete # plugins USE="${USE} alias autoreplace bonjour contactnotes highlight history latex otr privacy statistics urlpicpreview" # protocols USE="${USE} gadu groupwise jabber jingle oscar yahoo"
Somebody would have to maintain these things, so you should take your proposal to the gentoo-dev mailing list to see if the ebuild developer community is interested in it.
Can I post to gentoo-dev without subscribing? (I already get mails from too many mailing lists...). What I realized in the meantime is that this could very easily be tested in an overlay first instead of creating an untested structure in the tree which people begin to depend on.
(In reply to comment #2) > Can I post to gentoo-dev without subscribing? (I already get mails from too > many mailing lists...). Subscription info is here: http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/lists.xml You want the nomail option: listname+subscribe-nomail@lists.gentoo.org
Interesting... Maybe this time this'll go somewhere. I remember filing a bug with similiar proposal a while ago (Bug 205089). I was swiftly pointed in the direction of GLEP 29 and discussion on gentoo-dev about it (there're some links in Bug 174254 Comment #3 but they appear to be broken).
