After a short time trying FreeBSD, I'm back to GoboLinux, interested in the new useflags. I want to write some Recipes for programs I need and to include useflags support in them. I have some ideas for useflags implementation I want to share (if any of these is already implemented, please ignore it):
- Useflags descriptions: I think every Recipe that has useflags should have a short description about the purpose of enabling each of them, because, in some cases, this effect isn't as trivial as the own flag name could suggest. Maybe these descriptions could be included in the Resources/Description file of the Recipe, or set in a special variable (e.g.: use_<flag>_description="A short description about flag <flag>"). The second option would allow us to have a system file with default descriptions for all useflags, and the Recipe could overwrite any of them, if it's necessary a different description. - A dialog interface for setting useflags: We could write a small program that shows a dialog interface with all useflags available for a given Recipe in a checklist form, allowing the user to set/unset any of them, like the "make config" command for FreeBSD Ports. This program should read the useflags descriptions as suggested above and show them in the interface, and update the /System/Settings/UseFlags.conf file with the new changes. A Compile option could also be added to invoke such an interface for setting useflags on the fly, before compiling a Recipe. This could be done recursively for all dependencies of this Recipe, like the "make config-recursive" command in Ports. - Support for mutually exclusive useflags: Is there currently any support for mutually exclusive useflags in GoboLinux? For example, a Recipe I want to write for Maxima could have the following list of mutually exclusive flags: (clisp, gcl, cmucl, sbcl). Some other Recipes could have several groups of mutually exclusive flags: (flag1, flag2, flag3), (flag4, flag5). I think it could be declared at the end of Resources/[Build]Dependencies files, with a special syntax, e.g.: FooBar FooBaz [flag1] BarFoo [flag2] FooFoo BarBar [flag3] # Hypotetical syntax declaring flags flag1, flag2 and flag3 as mutually exclusive ![flag1,flag2,flag3] # In this case, flag1 is set by default, if none of them is set in /System/Settings/UseFlags.conf !![flag1,flag2,flag3] When Compile detects that more than one flag in a mutually exclusive list is set for a given Recipe, it would fail and return an appropriate error message. The dialog interface suggested above could show a group of mutually exclusive useflags in a radiolist, instead of a checklist, with an additional entry to set none of them. What do you think about it? Best regards.
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