linux.gentoo.user

On Wednesday 02 April 2008, Walter Dnes wrote:
> > To fix: unmerge the existing openmotif, merge the new one
>
> =A0 But, but, but... isn't the whole point of "--update --world" to
> *UPDATE* to the latest available version? =A0Why is it that openmotif
> requires *MANUALLY* deleting the old version, when 99% of
> non-slottable apps and libs allow portage to delete the old version
> and replace it with the new version? =A0I'm obviously missing something
> here.

In general that is the way it works. Neil posted to that effect a few=20
hours ago. However, just because it usually works that way doesn't mean=20
it always should or will work that way. There's this pesky thing=20
called "real life" and the pesky "corner cases" that come with it.

Sometimes a new version of a package simply cannot co-exist with an=20
older version because of the way it's coded. Portage first builds a=20
package and installs it to a sandbox environment to ensure that the=20
package is buildable. Only when tis is established and proven, will it=20
delete the old version and move the new one onto the live filesystem.=20
If you have this co-exist problem with that package, you have to=20
manually unmerge the older one, as portage will not take the risk of=20
leaving you with an unusable package (that correctly is a decision that=20
a human must take, it is TheUnixWay(tm) and=20
TheOneTrueWayOfComputing(tm).

The lesstif/openmotif mess is slightly different. Openmotif has an odd=20
licensing scheme, so odd the Fedora (I think) has decided to not=20
support it at all. The relevant Gentoo dev wants to set things up so=20
that you have to have one or the other but not both. The sanest way to=20
deal with this is to force the user to make a decision and implement=20
it, and to not have to put up with whatever choice the dev happens to=20
think is ideal. This could have been better documented. In fact, there=20
should have been some documentation about it at all, but there isn't -=20
just a mysterious blocker. I only know it because I read the new=20
comments in $PORTDIR/profiles/packages.mask after every sync :-) And I=20
see those comments are no longer there :-(

It's just one of those things that we have to put up with occasionally=20
in real life

=2D-=20
Alan McKinnon
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

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