On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 22:34:56 -0500 "Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Thursday 31 August 2006 11:31, "Duncan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote about '[gentoo-amd64] Re: About gcc 4.1.1': > > "Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> posted > > [EMAIL PROTECTED], excerpted below, on Thu, > > 31 Aug > > [...] > > If Gentoo, that's exactly what the various replace-flags and > > filter-flags do, at the Gentoo level, which is the ebuild. > > No, they don't make the package work with my flags; they > ignore/change my flags so that the package works. The job of Gentoo ebuild Developers is to provide an ebuild that will generate a package that (ideally) "just works", in a supported environment (i.e. one of the supported profiles with sensible CFLAGS etc). It is _not_ the job of ebuild devs to go hacking around in the upstream code to support compilation with any old set of wacky CFLAGS. So, doing "replace-flags -O? -O2" is exactly what ebuild devs should do if a package doesn't work when built with other optimisation levels. Strictly speaking, if there are bugs in an application that are not the result of the Gentoo environment being different to upstream, the only thing Gentoo ebuild devs need to do is file a suitable bug upstream and wait for upstream to provide a patch. Obviously, in practice we do patch code. Frequently this means just applying patches that come from upstream. Sometimes we do develop patches, if there is someone around who is competent to do so, in which case we send the patches upstream so the fix can be incorporated (at which point upstream may well re-work it). Sometimes the patching is to support environments that are unusual, for example the hardened profiles which change the environment in ways that upstream usually don't expect. Sometimes the patching is to support environments that upstream don't explicitly test, for example different arches. However Gentoo is not in the business of package development - it is in the business of system integration; putting all the packages together in a way that works. -- Kevin F. Quinn
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