> > Gentoo gives much more control as to what is actually on, and running > > on, the box, and some of our configurations are fairly custom, and it > > fits well with that. > > No flames, please. Honest questions follow. > > Having never worked with gentoo, I don't understand where this extra > control comes from. As a debian and ubuntu user, I know that I can > download the source and compile something myself if I like. I found > http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/about.xml to be lacking, as I could see > easy apt-get parallels for each of the "one command" actions listed. > > I know that there are people on the list who are actively using gentoo > in production environments, so can one of you give a more complete > argument for why the customization is easier? Does a gentoo install > start out significantly smaller? Do those of you who use it know that > you would be compiling just about everything to begin with? Give me > some arguments that'll inspire me to give gentoo a shot on _my_ old > clunker laptop. >
Gentoo uses a system called "use flags" to set all the compiler options. Basically a dumb frontend to all the various ./config options. Here is my USE for oldos: USE="-* pam bzlib mysql mysqli php tcpd -berkdb -gdbm -gpm -nls -perl -python -slang readline ssl crypt ncurses offensive -apache -apache2 fastcgi" A breakdown: -* = don't use any global default use flags (i.e., start with -everything) bzlib, mysql, mysqli, php, tcpd, readline, ssl, crypt, ncurses, fastcgi -- enables support for listed things offensive -- adds "offensive" things to the programs (i.e. in fortune, R rated fortunes) -foo -- removes "foo" support when package defaults to compiling it (i.e. since I use lighttpd, I remove all apache module building with -apache -apache2) So basically, I install a new package, and it follows those guidelines. It's nifty, and makes me RTFM less often :) -- Jason Faulkner ------------------------ OldOs.org Owner/Admin // OpenDocument Fellowship Sysadmin
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