Re: Do I really need the tree?

On Thursday 01 April 2004 14:19, Manuzhai wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been thinking about Gentoo Linux for some time. I first installed
> it a year ago, and I really liked it
> (http://www.manuzhai.nl/weblog/related.keyword/gentoo-linux/). Since
> then, I've installed it on my server and am in the process of getting
> a workable desktop-installation on my workstation. I wonder about
> this, though: do I really need the Portage tree.
>
> I emerge sync my server about daily and my desktop somewhat irregular,
> and I wonder: why do I have to do this. It seems (and I might be wrong
> on this one) that I really only need package names, version numbers
> and dependencies. These could easily be listed in a XML file (per
> category, for example), which means I'd just have to download a few
> XML files every time instead of having to rsync. I think the bandwidth
> use may be equivalent, but mirroring would be a lot simpler and less
> CPU-intensive if you just need to have a couple of XML files and a
> httpd.
>
> So rephrasing my question: why do I have to download all these ebuilds
> for software I never use? Just seems silly.

Basically because having such a scheme complicates things. It would 
change portage significantly, but it would be doable.

In the meantime however please note that it is possible to exclude 
certain categories from the rsync (like games). That would be able to 
safe some space/time.

Paul

--

-- 
Paul de Vrieze
Gentoo Developer
Mail: pauldv <at> gentoo.org
Homepage: http://www.devrieze.net