William Hubbs posted on Sat, 10 Feb 2018 12:43:08 -0600 as excerpted:
> This is all very custom (Gentoo makes these things as directories when
> the stages are built, so it won't be an issue for a default
> installation).
Of course Gentoo is a rolling distro... no need to periodically reinstall.
While I'm almost certainly an extreme example, people /will/ have a "non-
default" install in one way or another after say a decade-ish of
rolling. After all, if they weren't interested in that sort of "power"
modifications, they'd likely be long gone well before the decade, off to
some "easier" distro as it wouldn't be worth their trouble.
FWIW I've been continuously rolling the same original install forward
thru hardware, software, and needs changes, for nearing a decade and half
now. I'd argue it'd be the rare Gentoo install indeed that remains
"default state" after that sort of time.
Which is why these news items are so critically important. Ideally, they
provide not only a "default install" recipe, but two additional pieces of
critical information as well:
1) What sort of non-default site/install mods are likely to be affected.
(These need not be too specific, just something like, in this case,
"People with symlinks to alternative directory locations or similar site-
specific solutions may need to take particular care here. ...")
2) Preferably some hint at what might be needed.
("... Refreshing your backups before the upgrade and checking site-
specific solutions after the upgrade before reboot, is recommended.")
Because it's a system-critical package this becomes even more important.
(And FWIW, getting a longer heads-up to such changes is a primary reason
I read this list.)
--
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
