On 07/15/20 01:46, Ashley Dixon wrote:
On Tue, Jul 14, 2020 at 11:24:31PM +0200, n952162 wrote:
binary packages: how to:
1. find out if a package is binary before you install it (e.g. where on
app-arch/rar does it say it's a binary package)
RAR is an unusual case, with both the "mirror" and "bindist" flags set in the
RESTRICT variable (i.e., Gentoo cannot legally mirror the package, and you're
not allowed to redistribute binaries either). I couldn't find anything in the
ebuild which suggests it is a binary package; perhaps this is something that
should be reviewed by the Gentoo developers, as most packages supporting a
binary distribution provide a separate package with the `-bin` suffix, although
I suppose this doesn't make much sense when there is no source package.
The entire RAR business model of free decompression and paid compression has
caused confusion for many people over many decades. I'd always stick to 7zip or
one of the classic UNIX compression utilities, if I had a choice.
2. inhibit their installation
Don't install them. ;-)
More seriously: there's not that many of them, so it's probably not a process
worth automating, unless you're on a multi-user machine, in which untrusted
users can install packages - although I think you'd have more significant
problems at that point. As you've unfortunately discovered, there isn't much of
a concrete framework in place to automatically detect binary packages, which
also makes Point (3) difficult.
3. get a list of the ones installed on a system
`EIX_LIMIT=0 eix --only-names -I *-bin`, perhaps ? Unfortunately, this won't
catch the unusual cases, as seen with `app-arch/rar`.
Any ideas about that are appreciated.
[1] might be worth a read; it's quite comprehensive, and gives you a glimpse
into the inner-workings of Portage, allowing you to fix these issues yourself.
Something to note: "bindist", as the USE-flag and RESTRICT option, does not mean
"use a binary distribution", but rather "compile the package in such a way that
I can redistribute my build without putting myself in a legal problem with the
package authors" (this commonly is synonymous with disabling official branding):
$ ash-euses -sk bindist
dev-libs/openssl:bindist - Disable/Restrict EC algorithms (as they seem to be
patented) -- note: changes the ABI
dev-libs/openssl-compat:bindist - Disable/Restrict EC algorithms (as they seem
to be patented) -- note: changes the ABI
dev-qt/qtnetwork:bindist - Disable EC support via dev-libs/openssl
mail-client/thunderbird:bindist - Disable official Firefox/Thunderbird branding
(icons, name) which are not binary-redistributable according to upstream.
media-libs/freetype:bindist - Disable ClearType support (see
http://freetype.org/patents.html)
net-libs/liboauth:bindist - Alias for the nss USE flag, since there are license
compliancy trouble when using OpenSSL.
net-misc/openssh:bindist - Disable EC/RC5 algorithms in OpenSSL for patent
reasons.
sys-apps/ucspi-ssl:bindist - Disable EC/RC5 algorithms in OpenSSL for patent
reasons.
www-client/firefox:bindist - Disable official Firefox branding (icons, name)
which are not binary-redistributable according to upstream.
Hope this helps,
Ashley.
[1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Binary_package_guide
Yes, excellent overview. Thank you.
