The xorg-x11 meta-package adds plenty of useful and/or important dependencies. The fonts, however, are not among the useful ones or important ones. Over 20 font packages are pulled in, most of which are useless or outdated (bitmap fonts). I have unmerged the font packages and X still works without any issues. I propose that the pulling in of fonts by this meta-package be optional through a 'fonts' useflag (with the exception of media-fonts/font-alias, media-fonts/font-util and media-fonts/encodings, those should stay regardless of the useflag) PS: media-fonts/font-util is listed twice in the dependencies of the ebuild
(media-fonts/font-alias is also listed twice in the dependencies)
I'm sorry but according to bug 258535, xorg-x11 is outdated nowadays. However, I'm gonna assign it to X11 team, in case they want to take a look. @X11, guys, xorg-x11, outdated or not, it is still mentioned in our wiki page (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Xorg/Configuration).
(In reply to Panagiotis Christopoulos from comment #2) > I'm sorry but according to bug 258535, xorg-x11 is outdated nowadays. > However, I'm gonna assign it to X11 team, in case they want to take a look. > > @X11, guys, xorg-x11, outdated or not, it is still mentioned in our wiki > page (http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Xorg/Configuration). It was used back when upstream did "katamari" releases (ie, a full release of all X.org packages). Overall, my answer would be for users to ignore xorg-x11 and just install whatever packages they need, usually xorg-server, the xorg-drivers meta ebuild and whatever extra fonts and utilities needed (xdpyinfo, xkill, mesa-progs, etc). The wiki page pretty much mentions that, and all the examples point to individual X.org packages. I'm tempted to close this INVALID :) Cheers
Should we remove xorg-x11 then?
(In reply to Matt Turner from comment #4) > Should we remove xorg-x11 then? After 6 years of being "deprecated", that should really be considered. Then again, apart from the useless fonts, it DOES pull in many useful applications that nobody would remember to install otherwise.
(In reply to haarp from comment #5) > Then again, apart from the useless fonts, it DOES pull in many useful > applications that nobody would remember to install otherwise. Can we really consider them useful if we can't remember to install them?
(In reply to Matt Turner from comment #6) > (In reply to haarp from comment #5) > > Then again, apart from the useless fonts, it DOES pull in many useful > > applications that nobody would remember to install otherwise. > > Can we really consider them useful if we can't remember to install them? They do have their uses. But who would remember to install xdpyinfo in case they ever needed to find out their display DPI? Or xhost for when they want to all remote apps? Of course they could also be installed as-needed, but that could become annoying quickly. There are just so many. Furthermore, they are considered part of a "complete" X11 install, and many applications, documentation and troubleshooting procedures on the net simply assume they are present (I would know, I've written such a program) So the meta-package has a point, even if it also adds some mostly-useless dependencies. I figure some useflags could soften the footprint a bit, hence this bug report.
(In reply to haarp from comment #7) > (In reply to Matt Turner from comment #6) > > (In reply to haarp from comment #5) > > > Then again, apart from the useless fonts, it DOES pull in many useful > > > applications that nobody would remember to install otherwise. > > > > Can we really consider them useful if we can't remember to install them? > > They do have their uses. But who would remember to install xdpyinfo in case > they ever needed to find out their display DPI? Or xhost for when they want > to all remote apps? > > Of course they could also be installed as-needed, but that could become > annoying quickly. There are just so many. That's a fair point. My laptop wouldn't work with the conference projector and only then did I realize that I didn't have xrandr installed. :) > Furthermore, they are considered part of a "complete" X11 install, and many > applications, documentation and troubleshooting procedures on the net simply > assume they are present (I would know, I've written such a program) > > > So the meta-package has a point, even if it also adds some mostly-useless > dependencies. I figure some useflags could soften the footprint a bit, hence > this bug report. That's fair. I'll probably do this then.
The bug has been closed via the following commit(s): https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=b7c8e3389a7656318546f337d0b2f83b735485eb commit b7c8e3389a7656318546f337d0b2f83b735485eb Author: Matt Turner <mattst88@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2018-05-08 21:55:05 +0000 Commit: Matt Turner <mattst88@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2018-05-08 22:06:49 +0000 x11-base/xorg-x11: Add fonts USE flag Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/541762 x11-base/xorg-x11/metadata.xml | 3 ++ x11-base/xorg-x11/xorg-x11-7.4-r3.ebuild | 84 ++++++++++++++++---------------- 2 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 41 deletions(-)
