On 2011-12-18 11:44, Reuben Thomas wrote: > I agree with all of the above, but why not s/enable/install/?
I think that it's not uncommon to want to use ccache only explicitly, but that's mostly speculation. Another example of where it could be bad is that if the ccache package gets installed on a multi-user server where home directories are on (slow) NFS, then each user has to either disable ccache or explicitly set CCACHE_DIR to be on a non-NFS location since ccache on NFS is not very performant. I realize that the above reasoning is not entirely rational, but as the ccache upstream maintainer, I'm actually a bit nervous about the intrusiveness of enabling ccache by default, perhaps since I know that it's not without flaws. If ccache had more conservative defaults, then I would feel better about it. > The same applies to many tools the user can install: they change the > system works in subtle ways (e.g. a firewall), and Debian switches > them on by default when installed. If the user doesn't want that > behaviour, normally the solution is not to install the package. [...] If a user installs a firewall package, she is probably aware of that a firewall actually is meant to change the system behavior, while the goal of ccache is to not change the system at all from a functional point of view. > With ccache, that could perhaps be achieved by having it provide an > /etc/alternative for gcc which has higher priority than gcc; a user > who wants normal gcc to take precedence can simply set alternatives > manually. I personally don't think "easy" and "/etc/alternatives" belong in the same sentence. :-) I think that prepending /usr/lib/ccache to PATH, or removing it, is much easier to do or understand. If we would want a way of enabling ccache by default, I suggest that it should be done in a separate package, say "ccache-global-enable". > For what it's worth, my own experience was "read about ccache, install > it, configure it, use it". I have never found a pitfall, and I have > not learned about any pitfalls. I would quite happily avoid the > "configure it" step, since it didn't teach me anything, it merely > wasted my time (and in fact I had to do it more than once). I do not > doubt there are pitfalls; I merely observe that ccache's default > install did not teach me anything about them. Yes, documentation could indeed be improved. -- Joel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
