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List:       gentoo-dev
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-dev] overlay usage and maintainence [was: DistroWatch and Gentoo packages: status quo an
From:       Patrick Lauer <patrick () gentoo ! org>
Date:       2009-09-13 19:41:13
Message-ID: 200909132141.13870.patrick () gentoo ! org
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On Sunday 13 September 2009 21:03:13 Jesús Guerrero wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:57:48 +0200, Patrick Lauer <patrick@gentoo.org>
> 
> wrote:
> > First issue: How do I find out in which overlay stuff is?
> 
> http://gentoo.zapto.org/

That's not an official project, not mentioned in the layman docs afaik (feel 
free to prove me wrong :) ) and only list the overlays in the layman config.
It's just one step above "fetch from the bugzilla bug" ;)
(Ok, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it's still very user-unfriendly ...)
 
> > Second issue: "I want foopackage and barpackage, but not your hacked gcc"
> > Overlays can overshadow tree packages, which can have undesired effects.
> 
> Smart overlays shouldn't do that (and if you are using ~arch then it's
> *your* problem). 
How would you avoid it? If I had an overlay I'd dump everything in it that 
looks remotely interesting to me, and I don't care what you think should be in 
my overlay ;)

> No one forces you to get the full overlay though. You can
> put the overlay out of the PORTDIR_OVERLAY, and then just symlink the
> wanted directories into your PORTDIR_OVERLAY, that way you will get the
> facilities of layman and the advantage or a greater control.
*stab*

That's instant headache (dependencies!) and just a dirty hack around having 
the packages in the tree. I'm surprised that you are willing to spend so much 
energy on hacking around stuff, but unwilling to fix stuff directly. I'm far 
too lazy for such things :)

> Yep. All comes down to the same, lack of man power I think.
Always. And if you ever think you're done some users file some new bugs :)
So if you feel unhappy about things go fix them. You have the power!
(And any excuse that you are not talented enough or whatever ... look, they 
let me commit to the tree too!)

Plus there's all the other fronts in the battle for the best linux distro. 
Bugwrangling, documentation maintenance, security issues, ... there are enough 
possibilities even for those that can't or don't want to work on ebuilds 
directly. Just start working on stuff, ask when you need help and it'll be 
even better soon.

See? It's easy. And you have no excuse not to help. Now just do stuff! :) 


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