From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 12 21:12:32 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1CC3516A46E for ; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:12:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from chuckr@chuckr.org) Received: from mail3.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail3.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.5]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EAECA13C4A6 for ; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:12:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from chuckr@chuckr.org) Received: (qmail 6807 invoked from network); 12 Nov 2007 21:11:59 -0000 Received: from april.chuckr.org (chuckr@[66.92.151.30]) (envelope-sender ) by mail3.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP for ; 12 Nov 2007 21:11:59 -0000 Message-ID: <4738C145.2050601@chuckr.org> Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:10:29 -0500 From: Chuck Robey User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071107 SeaMonkey/1.1.6 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Garrett Cooper References: <2852884D-270A-4879-B960-C10A602E080E@ashleymoran.me.uk> <47387891.2060007@unsane.co.uk> <47387BCA.6080604@foster.cc> <20071112183502.438b44b8@gumby.homeunix.com.> <4738A71A.6060100@chuckr.org> <4738ACDD.50108@u.washington.edu> <4738ADC8.2060005@gmx.de> <4738AEBF.4010109@u.washington.edu> In-Reply-To: <4738AEBF.4010109@u.washington.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: "\[LoN\]Kamikaze" , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, RW Subject: Re: Ports with GUI configs X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:12:32 -0000 Garrett Cooper wrote: > [LoN]Kamikaze wrote: >> Garrett Cooper wrote: >> USE flags are a pain in the ass (former Gentoo user of 3 years). >>> Introducing that type of complexity into a ports system isn't necessary >>> and does unexpected things at times for end-users when developers change >>> variable names or behavior, which happened quite often with Gentoo. >>> make config-all or something similar to have people fill in their >>> desired config info in all of the ncurses config sections would however >>> be a much better idea I think.. >>> -Garrett >>> >> >> Are you talking about make config-recursive? >> > Yes =\. Lemme guess.. that's already an option :)? I hope not. We really need to move this out of being a ports buildtime thing. Currently, to build ports in batch either requires someone to be chained to the computer, so as to intercept all those screens, or to simply agree to install everything, with no inpput whatever. These are both bad options. Also, asking users to pick if a particular piece of software, one that they most liely have never heard of, can be used, is not a particularly good way to get the info either. Gentoo's idea of a USE list has some good points, and some bad points. The worst part is that keeping that USE list corect is too damn difficult. BUT if we made that list private, so be manipulated solely by a more intelligent program, one that could ask better quetions, and let that maintain the list, that would stop the ports-build-time interruptions, and also make things much much easier for users, even technical users, to administer. Just don't let folks need to maintain that list themselves.