Gentoo's Portage 2.1 to adopt RPM format for LSB compliance
 

Portage 2.1 to adopt RPM format for LSB compliance

In what will likely prove to be a controversial decision, Portage 2.1 will adopt the RPM format for all packages moving forward. The use of ebuilds will be deprecated in favor of the defacto RPM standard. The primary driver for this decision was to ensure compliance with the Linux Standard Base specification, which mandates RPM support for package management.

The developers have been hard at work to make this migration as easy as possible. Already a proof-of-concept ebuild2rpm script is in place and being tested by a pilot group of developers. Unfortunately, because of the architectural differences between the two formats, some features will not be supported once Gentoo moves to RPM. USE variables are one such feature; sandbox security is another. However, the added benefit brought about by full LSB compliance should far outweigh the loss of these two minor features.

Additionally, because of LSB's required library support, the xfree86 package will move to become part of the base Gentoo Linux system, rather than an optional addition. Users interested in learning more about the Linux Standard Base should read the LSB FAQ or the full LSB 1.3 specification.

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The only thing I can say about this is: %&! #&^%(@# $*%(#@) Gentoo %($%& )#$%^&# ^$@*%^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

If we're talking about binary rpms, this really sucks.
If we're talking about source rpms, this isn't too bad.

Would this change mean that gentoo is no longer a source based distribution if it starts using binary rpms.

That would suck.

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thank god! it's just an april fool's joke.

I completely agree this is what made gentoo much different than other distros. I happen to like the idea of compiling my software from source this is rather depressing.

Happy April Fool's day! :D

I was quite shocked when I first read those "news", and somehow I couldn't believe what I was reading.

"There must be a new type of text virus changing emails in my postbox", I thought until I realised what date we have today... :-)

Thanks for ruining the surprise, arse. :)

In other news, all the BSDs are merging and Thinkgeek is now selling a George Foreman iGrill that connects to a USB2.0 port.

Perhaps creating a link to GWN instead of copying-pasting would be much easier ;) Anyhow this is no joke for a gentooer... I nearly had a heart-attack reading this so I thought I should warn the next readers.

Bah! RPMs are awesome and great! Especially when they are broken beyond all imagination (read: SuSE RPMs)! I mean, who doesn't like RPMs? They work great and are easy to build!

PS: I'm back! Gentoo broke, so a friend gave me Mandrake 9.1, which really is great (thats not April Fools, that is the truth).

Had fun with heads on this one on irc all day.
Sorry to hear your gentoo broke, crichards, hope you're enjoying mandrake. Just had to add, mine broke too, and I've just done a new install (my first from the stage3 tarball) and I'm amazed at how much more quickly it's been going. it's taken 3 days to get as far as I've always got in a week. RC3 rocks. Also thanks to GWN for the heart failure!
:p