Rich Freeman posted on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:45:04 -0500 as excerpted: > Again, you're using coreutils as an example, and that doesn't seem like > something that would be much of a value-add to place in RDEPEND. > However, if you had a package that required openssh, that would seem to > be a much better candidate for an RDEPEND, since it is trivial to boot a > system without openssh installed despite it being in system.
For years I had openssh in package.provided, since I literally did not have a use for it at all. Then portage changed something and that didn't work, so I had it added as a negative dependency in packages (where busybox and module-init-tools are now, since I don't need either, all modules built-in so no module-loading needed and I have a full backup system install image copied over and test-booted for verification as my rescue image so no rescue shell needed, and I never could get busybox to build back when I used to try, until I gave up as no need for it anyway). But when I got the netbook setup with the build chroot on the main system, I installed ssh to handle secure rsyncing and remote admin from my main system. So THEN I needed it and simply deleted the negative dependencies. But I STILL argue that ssh doesn't belong in @system. It's as optional and special-purpose as X is, and xorg isn't in system. If people want it, they can merge it, just like any other package. Really, the same applies to busybox, and arguably, even to module-init-tools (and the more recent replacement, kmod...), since that's not needed if people choose to build all their drivers into the kernel. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
