On czw, 2017-08-03 at 11:33 -0400, Mike Gilbert wrote: > I would like to remove the ban on variable references in the HOMEPAGE > variable in ebuilds. > > As I understand it, this ban was put in place so that people can > easily copy/paste from an ebuild to a web browser. > > If people want to copy/paste the URL, they can easily query the final > value using the portage API, or a tool written against it.
I object! Portage API does not work conveniently for ebuilds scattered
all over the place, or visible through gitweb.
In fact, I would like to request an opposite motion: I would like to ban
all constant-value variable references unless they give a *very* large
measurable benefit.
I'm really tired of people who try hard to replace everything with
a variable when it doesn't give any benefit. It only means that:
- when reviewing multiple ebuilds, I constantly need to look at PN to
figure out whether someone didn't screw up the vars,
- things are not suitable for straightforward copy-paste for testing,
- everything falls apart when someone renames the package (either us or
upstream). In particular, it becomes PITA to figure out which ${PN}
represent the upstream name, and which ones strictly refer to the
package name.
In other words:
a. P/PV/PF are acceptable because versions change frequently,
b. PN might be acceptable when used for MY_P and so on,
c. no variables in HOMEPAGE, EGIT_REPO_URI, constant part of SRC_URI
(so I could at least open the directory containing the file),
d. no random ${PN} all over the install phase.
> Allowing variables in HOMEPAGE would allow for easier copying of
> similar/identical ebuilds. For example, see the trivial ebuilds in my
> overlay below.
>
> https://bitbucket.org/floppym/floppym-overlay/src/8b55fab291ec1f9be93ade9c91e7d62d7b8a259d/dev-go/cloudflare-go/cloudflare-go-0.7.4.ebuild
>
> https://bitbucket.org/floppym/floppym-overlay/src/8b55fab291ec1f9be93ade9c91e7d62d7b8a259d/dev-go/pkg-errors/pkg-errors-0.8.0.ebuild
>
> https://bitbucket.org/floppym/floppym-overlay/src/8b55fab291ec1f9be93ade9c91e7d62d7b8a259d/dev-go/urfave-cli/urfave-cli-1.19.1.ebuild
Laziness shouldn't be an excuse to make things worse. You can write
yourself a tool that puts correct values there.
--
Best regards,
Michał Górny
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