On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:19:12 +0200 Nikos Chantziaras <rea...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/03/12 20:05, Bruce Hill, Jr. wrote: > > These virtual apps are irritating me, and the fanboi answers in > > #gentoo are worse. > > > > What is the purpose of virtual/shadow and why would I want it? > > Paul's answers covers it, but I'll give an explanation that is the > reverse of a fanboi answer. > > The reason we need virtuals is because of a shortcoming in portage: > lack of "provides" functionality. RPM packages can tell the package > manager what they provide. For example, RPMs for libav and ffmpeg > can both use "ffmpeg" as their "provides" field. Portage can't do > that, so it needs a new "virtual/ffmpeg" package instead. > > Anyone care to offer an opinion on what it will take to get PROVIDES support in portage? -- Alan McKinnnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
