I really like the functionality of readme.gentoo-r1.eclass, as it allows to communicate Gentoo-specific information about a package to the user. Especially as it improves the signal-to-noise ratio of messages arriving to our users.
However, readme.gentoo-r1.eclass will only show this information on new installs, but not if the information changed. This is a major drawback. Furthermore, readme.gentoo-r1.eclass does not provide an API to assemble the information via heredoc. The following patch includes a new eclass named "greadme", that addresses those shortcomings of readme.gentoo-r1.eclass and hopefully can be seen as a general overhaul. This is a first draft of the eclass and therefore I'd like to ask for feedback. The greadme.eclass contains some TODO items at the end of its @DESCRIPTION. The main item is doc compression. Right now, greadme.eclass defaults to add the readme doc to the compression exclusion list via "docompress -x". A mode where the readme doc is compressed, just as readme.gentoo-r1.eclass does, can be activated by setting _GREADME_COMPRESS. However, I believe this mode is fragile as it can not be guaranteed that a binary for the used compression algorithms is installed on the host [1]. I believe it is reasonable to simply install the readme doc uncompressed, since they are typically only a few lines long. However, if anyone can point out a way to achieve the desired functionality with a compressed readme doc, then please let me know. Thanks for reviewing the eclass. Florian Schmaus (1): greadme.eclass: new eclass eclass/greadme.eclass | 281 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 281 insertions(+) create mode 100644 eclass/greadme.eclass -- 2.41.0
