It would be quite elegant to have a possibility for XML-output in portage. Currently it is a complicated thing to parse the ouput. I would suggest the following format: $ emerge -Dup --newuse world These are the packages that I would merge, in order: Calculating dependencies ...done! [ebuild U ] gnome-base/gnome-2.8.0-r1 [2.8.0_pre1] -accessibility +cdr -dvdr +hal* 0 kB [ebuild R ] gnome-base/gnome-vfs-2.8.3-r1 -debug -doc -gnutls +hal* +howl* +ipv6 +samba +ssl 0 kB Total size of downloads: 0,0 kB $ emerge -Dupv --newuse --xml world <emerge desc="These are the packages I would merge in order"> <update desc="These packages are updated because they are outdated"> <package> <name>gnome</name> <category>gnome-base</category> <version>2.8.0-r1</version> <current>2.8.0_pre1</current> <use> <accessibility flag="unset" /> <cdr flag="set" /> <dvdr flag="unset" /> <hal flag="new" /> </use> <size>0 kb</size> </package> </update> <newuse desc="These packages are remerged because of changing USE-flags> <package> <name>gnome-vfs</name> <category>gnome-base</category> <version>2.8.3-r1</version> <current>2.8.3-r1</current> <use> <debug flag="unset" /> <doc flag="unset" /> <gnutls flag="unset" /> <hal flag="new" /> <howl flag="new" /> <ipv6 flag="set" /> <samba flag="set" /> <ssl flag="set" /> </use> <size>0 kb</size> </package> <newuse> <size>0,0 kb</size> <param>--deep --update --pretend --newuse</param> <target>world</target> </emerge> I've no idea what's the best implemantation. Maybe it would make sense, to use XML as the standard-ouput. The GUI-applications would be thankful ;-)
Are they any thoughts about this request or should it be closed as wontfix?
Err... what are you attempting to do? Just get the depgraph/build list? Cause going through and hacking up the existing code to do --xml really ain't my idea of fun/high priority... :)
Getting the whole emerge to ouput xml is hard. I think xml output for "--pretend --verbose" is enough. It seems you have to write another 262-lines depgraph.display function (let's call it depgraph.xml_display) Anyway, it should be possible to this with portageapi :)
I would love an XML output too. I would have my gentoo boxes post the xml output of emerge -uDpv world to a central server, where a script generates a graphical overwiew which box need which updates. Makes it easier as reading mails every day where emerge states that there are no updates available. Additinally a feature for update would be usefull which prints the changelog for the package which will be updated.
Should there be a proposal for a GLEP? If it is wanted, I'm going to write one.
No need for a GLEP as this only affects portage. Don't expect any news on this in the near future though, this depends on more important things being implemented first.
Marking as LATER for the time being. Either way, it wouldn't be integrated into emerge itself but would be a separate tool.
