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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">29</td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">USE flag groups</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.1</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Ciaran McCreesh &lt;ciaranm&#32;&#97;t&#32;gentoo.org&gt;</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0029.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2004/08/22 01:59:24</a></td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0012.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">19-August-2004</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-Date:</th><td class="field-body">21-August-2004</td>
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<div class="contents topic" id="contents">
<p class="topic-title first"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id3" name="id3">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id4" name="id4">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id5" name="id5">Specification</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference" href="#group-specification" id="id6" name="id6">Group Specification</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#group-descriptions" id="id7" name="id7">Group Descriptions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#using-groups" id="id8" name="id8">Using Groups</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#additional-issues" id="id9" name="id9">Additional Issues</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#adding-new-groups" id="id10" name="id10">Adding New Groups</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id11" name="id11">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#reference-implementation" id="id12" name="id12">Reference Implementation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatability" id="id13" name="id13">Backwards Compatability</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id14" name="id14">References</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id15" name="id15">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: EARLY DRAFT, SEND COMMENTS TO ciaranm. EVERYTHING IN
HERE IS OPEN TO DISCUSSION. THE WRITING STYLE SUCKS. MAY CAUSE CANCER IN
PUPPIES.</p>
<div class="section" id="abstract">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
<p>Currently, USE flags must be selected on a one-by-one basis, making it
time-consuming to set up make.conf appropriately for a machine's role.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="motivation">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
<p>USE flags allow the user to have software built in a manner which is
relevant for their system's role. For example, a desktop user will
probably want to enable optional X support in packages, whereas a server
user will not. However, with several hundred USE flags available, it can
be time consuming to set up make.conf appropriately.</p>
<p>This GLEP proposes a mechanism for grouping USE flags to simplify
selection.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="specification">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
<div class="section" id="group-specification">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" name="group-specification">Group Specification</a></h2>
<p>A group shall consist of one or more USE flags. These groups are defined
in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups</span></tt>. It is proposed that uppercase names
only are used for groups to keep them visually distinct from normal USE
flags. The file format is similar to the existing use.* files:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
SOME_GROUP flag1 flag2 flag3
OTHER_GROUP flag2 flag4
</pre>
<p>Groups may recursively include other groups. For consistency with GLEP 23
[1], it is proposed that group names are prefixed with an 'at' symbol (&#64;):</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
GROUP1 flag1
GROUP2 flag2 flag3 &#64;GROUP1
GROUP3 flag4
GROUP4 &#64;GROUP2 &#64;GROUP3 flag5
</pre>
<p>Users may create their own groups using <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/use.groups</span></tt>. This
file overrides the profile settings in the case of duplicates.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="group-descriptions">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" name="group-descriptions">Group Descriptions</a></h2>
<p>Groups shall have a textual description associated with them in the same
way as USE flags. The file <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups.desc</span></tt>
contains these:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
DESKTOP Flags which are appropriate for most desktop systems
RECOMMENDED Flags which should be enabled on almost all systems
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="using-groups">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" name="using-groups">Using Groups</a></h2>
<p>Groups may be used in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/make.conf</span></tt>, <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/package.use</span></tt> and
other places where USE flags are normally specified. Again, the &#64; symbol
is used. For example, a <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">make.conf</span></tt> for a desktop system might resemble:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
USE=&quot;&#64;DESKTOP &#64;KDE perl alsa dvd&quot;
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="additional-issues">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="additional-issues">Additional Issues</a></h2>
<p>Groups should <em>not</em> generally contain negative USE flags, as this would
lead to confusion. Groups are intended to specify what will be enabled for
a given role, not what will be turned off. For example, if the &#64;KDE group
disabled Gnome-related USE flags, and a user used <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">USE=&quot;&#64;GNOME</span> <span class="pre">&#64;KDE&quot;</span></tt> to
specify that they wanted both Gnome <em>and</em> KDE to be used where applicable,
chaos would ensue. However, for the sake of consistency, -flags should be
supported even if their use is strongly discouraged.</p>
<p>It is proposed that <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-&#64;GROUP</span></tt> syntax should <em>not</em> be supported. Instead,
users wishing to turn most things off could use the <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-*</span></tt> USE syntax
along with a group (for example, &#64;RECOMMENDED) which turned on flags (for
example, pam and readline) which should usually be used.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="adding-new-groups">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="adding-new-groups">Adding New Groups</a></h2>
<p>The actual groups to be created is beyond the scope of this GLEP, and any
group names contained herein should be treated as examples only. Creation
of new groups and changing a group's flags should be discussed on the
gentoo-dev mailing list as per existing policy for new global USE flags.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="rationale">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
<p>USE groups will simplify selecting an appropriate set of USE flags for a
system.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="reference-implementation">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></h1>
<p>TODO</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="backwards-compatability">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="backwards-compatability">Backwards Compatability</a></h1>
<p>The user will not need to make any changes to keep their current setup.
Users who are not running a portage version which supports groups can
carry on using current syntax with no side-effects.</p>
<p>Some tools which work with make.conf and / or USE flags (for example,
<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">ufed</span></tt>) will need to be updated to understand the new group syntax.</p>
<p>There is currently a dymanic list of USE flags available on the Gentoo
website [2]. For consistency, a similar list will be needed for USE
groups.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="references">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="references">References</a></h1>
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id1" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a name="id1">[1]</a></td><td>GLEP 23: Portage handling of ACCEPT_LICENSE
(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id2" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a name="id2">[2]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml">http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="copyright">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
<blockquote>
vim: set tw=74 :</blockquote>
</div>
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29			<col class="field-name" />
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32			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">29</td>
33			</tr>
34			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">USE flag groups</td>
35			</tr>
36			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.1</td>
37			</tr>
38			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm at gentoo.org></td>
39			</tr>
40			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0029.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2004/08/22 01:59:24</a></td>
41			</tr>
42			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td>
43			</tr>
44			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
45			</tr>
46			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0012.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
47			</tr>
48			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">19-August-2004</td>
49			</tr>
50			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-Date:</th><td class="field-body">21-August-2004</td>
51			</tr>
52			</tbody>
53			</table>
54			<hr />
55			<div class="contents topic" id="contents">
56			<p class="topic-title first"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p>
57			<ul class="simple">
58			<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id3" name="id3">Abstract</a></li>
59			<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id4" name="id4">Motivation</a></li>
60			<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id5" name="id5">Specification</a><ul>
61			<li><a class="reference" href="#group-specification" id="id6" name="id6">Group Specification</a></li>
62			<li><a class="reference" href="#group-descriptions" id="id7" name="id7">Group Descriptions</a></li>
63			<li><a class="reference" href="#using-groups" id="id8" name="id8">Using Groups</a></li>
64			<li><a class="reference" href="#additional-issues" id="id9" name="id9">Additional Issues</a></li>
65			<li><a class="reference" href="#adding-new-groups" id="id10" name="id10">Adding New Groups</a></li>
66			</ul>
67			</li>
68			<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id11" name="id11">Rationale</a></li>
69			<li><a class="reference" href="#reference-implementation" id="id12" name="id12">Reference Implementation</a></li>
70			<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatability" id="id13" name="id13">Backwards Compatability</a></li>
71			<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id14" name="id14">References</a></li>
72			<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id15" name="id15">Copyright</a></li>
73			</ul>
74			</div>
75			<p>BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: EARLY DRAFT, SEND COMMENTS TO ciaranm. EVERYTHING IN
76			HERE IS OPEN TO DISCUSSION. THE WRITING STYLE SUCKS. MAY CAUSE CANCER IN
77			PUPPIES.</p>
78			<div class="section" id="abstract">
79			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
80			<p>Currently, USE flags must be selected on a one-by-one basis, making it
81			time-consuming to set up make.conf appropriately for a machine's role.</p>
82			</div>
83			<div class="section" id="motivation">
84			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
85			<p>USE flags allow the user to have software built in a manner which is
86			relevant for their system's role. For example, a desktop user will
87			probably want to enable optional X support in packages, whereas a server
88			user will not. However, with several hundred USE flags available, it can
89			be time consuming to set up make.conf appropriately.</p>
90			<p>This GLEP proposes a mechanism for grouping USE flags to simplify
91			selection.</p>
92			</div>
93			<div class="section" id="specification">
94			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
95			<div class="section" id="group-specification">
96			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" name="group-specification">Group Specification</a></h2>
97			<p>A group shall consist of one or more USE flags. These groups are defined
98			in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups</span></tt>. It is proposed that uppercase names
99			only are used for groups to keep them visually distinct from normal USE
100			flags. The file format is similar to the existing use.* files:</p>
101			<pre class="literal-block">
102			SOME_GROUP flag1 flag2 flag3
103			OTHER_GROUP flag2 flag4
104			</pre>
105			<p>Groups may recursively include other groups. For consistency with GLEP 23
106			[1], it is proposed that group names are prefixed with an 'at' symbol (@):</p>
107			<pre class="literal-block">
108			GROUP1 flag1
109			GROUP2 flag2 flag3 @GROUP1
110			GROUP3 flag4
111			GROUP4 @GROUP2 @GROUP3 flag5
112			</pre>
113			<p>Users may create their own groups using <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/use.groups</span></tt>. This
114			file overrides the profile settings in the case of duplicates.</p>
115			</div>
116			<div class="section" id="group-descriptions">
117			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" name="group-descriptions">Group Descriptions</a></h2>
118			<p>Groups shall have a textual description associated with them in the same
119			way as USE flags. The file <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups.desc</span></tt>
120			contains these:</p>
121			<pre class="literal-block">
122			DESKTOP Flags which are appropriate for most desktop systems
123			RECOMMENDED Flags which should be enabled on almost all systems
124			</pre>
125			</div>
126			<div class="section" id="using-groups">
127			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" name="using-groups">Using Groups</a></h2>
128			<p>Groups may be used in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/make.conf</span></tt>, <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/package.use</span></tt> and
129			other places where USE flags are normally specified. Again, the @ symbol
130			is used. For example, a <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">make.conf</span></tt> for a desktop system might resemble:</p>
131			<pre class="literal-block">
132			USE="@DESKTOP @KDE perl alsa dvd"
133			</pre>
134			</div>
135			<div class="section" id="additional-issues">
136			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="additional-issues">Additional Issues</a></h2>
137			<p>Groups should <em>not</em> generally contain negative USE flags, as this would
138			lead to confusion. Groups are intended to specify what will be enabled for
139			a given role, not what will be turned off. For example, if the @KDE group
140			disabled Gnome-related USE flags, and a user used <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">USE="@GNOME</span> <span class="pre">@KDE"</span></tt> to
141			specify that they wanted both Gnome <em>and</em> KDE to be used where applicable,
142			chaos would ensue. However, for the sake of consistency, -flags should be
143			supported even if their use is strongly discouraged.</p>
144			<p>It is proposed that <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-@GROUP</span></tt> syntax should <em>not</em> be supported. Instead,
145			users wishing to turn most things off could use the <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-*</span></tt> USE syntax
146			along with a group (for example, @RECOMMENDED) which turned on flags (for
147			example, pam and readline) which should usually be used.</p>
148			</div>
149			<div class="section" id="adding-new-groups">
150			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="adding-new-groups">Adding New Groups</a></h2>
151			<p>The actual groups to be created is beyond the scope of this GLEP, and any
152			group names contained herein should be treated as examples only. Creation
153			of new groups and changing a group's flags should be discussed on the
154			gentoo-dev mailing list as per existing policy for new global USE flags.</p>
155			</div>
156			</div>
157			<div class="section" id="rationale">
158			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
159			<p>USE groups will simplify selecting an appropriate set of USE flags for a
160			system.</p>
161			</div>
162			<div class="section" id="reference-implementation">
163			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></h1>
164			<p>TODO</p>
165			</div>
166			<div class="section" id="backwards-compatability">
167			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="backwards-compatability">Backwards Compatability</a></h1>
168			<p>The user will not need to make any changes to keep their current setup.
169			Users who are not running a portage version which supports groups can
170			carry on using current syntax with no side-effects.</p>
171			<p>Some tools which work with make.conf and / or USE flags (for example,
172			<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">ufed</span></tt>) will need to be updated to understand the new group syntax.</p>
173			<p>There is currently a dymanic list of USE flags available on the Gentoo
174			website [2]. For consistency, a similar list will be needed for USE
175			groups.</p>
176			</div>
177			<div class="section" id="references">
178			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="references">References</a></h1>
179			<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id1" rules="none">
180			<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
181			<tbody valign="top">
182			<tr><td class="label"><a name="id1">[1]</a></td><td>GLEP 23: Portage handling of ACCEPT_LICENSE
183			(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html</a>)</td></tr>
184			</tbody>
185			</table>
186			<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id2" rules="none">
187			<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
188			<tbody valign="top">
189			<tr><td class="label"><a name="id2">[2]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml">http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml</a></td></tr>
190			</tbody>
191			</table>
192			</div>
193			<div class="section" id="copyright">
194			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
195			<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
196			<blockquote>
197			vim: set tw=74 :</blockquote>
198			</div>
199			</div>
200
201			<hr class="footer" />
202			<div class="footer">
203			<a class="reference" href="glep-0029.txt">View document source</a>.
204			Generated on: 2004-08-22 01:47 UTC.
205			Generated by <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a> from <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> source.
206			</div>
207			</body>
208			</html>
209