8000_allow_system_icu.patch of (at least) www-client/firefox-24.0-r1 contains check that icu-i18n version is >= 50.1 when "--with-system-icu" configure parameter is provided, but in ebuild system-icu USE flag depends only dev-libs/icu, without particular version. The dependency in ebuild should be on dev-libs/icu >= 50.1. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Have dev-libs/icu < 50.1 installed 2. Try to emerge www-client/firefox[system-icu] 3. Watch it failing at configure
..but there is no dev-libs/icu older than 51 in the tree. Incorporating www-client/firefox-24's ebuild into an old tree is unsupported. Also, upgrading a new package without upgrading said package's depenencies via "--deep" is generally considered to be a broken process, too. However, I will leave the decision to mozilla lead, just in case I am incorrect in my interpretation of policy.
> ..but there is no dev-libs/icu older than 51 in the tree. That wasn't always the case. > Also, upgrading a new package without upgrading said package's > depenencies via "--deep" is generally considered to be a broken process, too. The same will happen if you emerge firefox without having older version (of firefox) installed first. Also, can you point out an Gentoo policy document that states that installing package via "emerge xxx-yyy/zzz" without adding "--deep" flag is "generally considered to be a broken process"?
When the system-icu patch was introduced, the minimum version of dev-libs/icu in the tree was 51.x: www-client/firefox-24.0 was added to the tree on 2013-09-24. dev-libs/icu-50.1.2 and previous were removed on 2013-07-23, two months earlier. So no. It was always the case that when the system-icu patch existed (and a version of firefox existed in the tree that had icu support), the minimum version of icu available in the tree was new enough to be supported. If this is not the case on your system, then you have modified your copy of the tree or you are using an unsupported/out of date set of overlays. When ebuilds are committed to the tree, dependencies on ebuilds need only match what is available in the tree itself. Minimum version specifiers that are below the minimum version of a dependency are unnecessary and are sometimes even discouraged. I have searched for specific gentoo policy dealing with this (short of reading through the PMS) but have not had success in finding it. What is considered to be a broken process, though, is upgrading or installing packages while still having a significant number of system updates that have not been applied. That is, it is not considered a bug when the installed system's state is older than that of the portage tree -- you're supposed to update the system first via standard practice (ie, emerge -uDN @world). Obviously you don't have to, but if emerges break because you didn't do this then you're on your own, since the fix is always to update your system and try again.
(In reply to Ian Stakenvicius from comment #3) > When the system-icu patch was introduced, the minimum version of > dev-libs/icu in the tree was 51.x: > > www-client/firefox-24.0 was added to the tree on 2013-09-24. > dev-libs/icu-50.1.2 and previous were removed on 2013-07-23, two months > earlier. So let's see how this works. I have a system that is from 2013-07-22. I go to upgrade, and like a good gentooer I use --ask --verbose to show me the use flags that I may like. I notice this sweet new system-icu flags, awesome, let's use that. Since firefox has a dep on icu, but not on icu 51.x, it is satisfied by my installed icu 50.1.2 so there is no need to upgrade icu before firefox. PLEASE, specify deps properly. Gentoo strives to keep systems updatable for at least 1 year. Two months is not one year. Thanks
Fixed in latest ebuilds, should show on mirrors in a few hours.
Thanks.
