en/glep/glep-0005.txt

GLEP: 6
Title: Extending metadata.xml
Version: $Revision: 1.0 $
Last-Modified: $Date: 2003/07/02 18:00:02 $
Author: Heinrich Wendel <sysop@heinospage.de>,
Status: Draft
Type: Standards Track
Content-Type: text/x-rst
Created: 02-Jul-2003


Abstract
========

As the latest development in Gentoo and Portage added the metadata.xml file
to each package, which provides information about the package and it's
maintainers, this GLEP proposes to extend this format in order to simplify
the .ebuild format.


Motivation
==========

The metadata.xml [1]_ standard was accepted and it already contains some
information about the packages (longdescription).


Specification
=============

Add the tags <description> <homepage> <license> to the metadata.xml [1]_ and
remove them from the .ebuild files.  All ebuilds and the emerge -S feature
have to be changed to use the new format.


Rationale
=========

The three tags description, homepage and license are mostly the same in all
versions of an ebuild, but they must be added to each version. In order to
simplify the .ebuild format they can be moved to the new metadata.xml [1]_ file.
This would also allow different descriptions for different languages (lang
attribute) and there are no problems when a programm changes it license
(restrict attribute).


Backwards Compatibility
=======================

As it will take some time to do the changes on every ebuild, portage should still
support the old format for some time.


Reference Implementation
========================

not yet ...


References
==========

.. [1] Gentoo Herds Project
   [http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/metastructure/herds/#doc_chap2]

Copyright
=========

This document has been placed in the public domain.
1	GLEP: 6
2	Title: Extending metadata.xml
3	Version: $Revision: 1.0 $
4	Last-Modified: $Date: 2003/07/02 18:00:02 $
5	Author: Heinrich Wendel <sysop@heinospage.de>,
6	Status: Draft
7	Type: Standards Track
8	Content-Type: text/x-rst
9	Created: 02-Jul-2003
10
11
12	Abstract
13	========
14
15	As the latest development in Gentoo and Portage added the metadata.xml file
16	to each package, which provides information about the package and it's
17	maintainers, this GLEP proposes to extend this format in order to simplify
18	the .ebuild format.
19
20
21	Motivation
22	==========
23
24	The metadata.xml [1]_ standard was accepted and it already contains some
25	information about the packages (longdescription).
26
27
28	Specification
29	=============
30
31	Add the tags <description> <homepage> <license> to the metadata.xml [1]_ and
32	remove them from the .ebuild files. All ebuilds and the emerge -S feature
33	have to be changed to use the new format.
34
35
36	Rationale
37	=========
38
39	The three tags description, homepage and license are mostly the same in all
40	versions of an ebuild, but they must be added to each version. In order to
41	simplify the .ebuild format they can be moved to the new metadata.xml [1]_ file.
42	This would also allow different descriptions for different languages (lang
43	attribute) and there are no problems when a programm changes it license
44	(restrict attribute).
45
46
47	Backwards Compatibility
48	=======================
49
50	As it will take some time to do the changes on every ebuild, portage should still
51	support the old format for some time.
52
53
54	Reference Implementation
55	========================
56
57	not yet ...
58
59
60	References
61	==========
62
63	.. [1] Gentoo Herds Project
64	[http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/metastructure/herds/#doc_chap2]
65
66	Copyright
67	=========
68
69	This document has been placed in the public domain.