Profile which includes all nonconflicting useflags?

[ArneBab]

Hi,

I just found a solution to a problem with eric4: A useflag for qt4 appeared, which hadn't been there from the beginning.

I could solve the problem by simply adding the useflag, but before I got to care for that problem, I didn't use eric4 for 2 weeks, because I didn't find the solution within half an hour.

This was another case where I just stumbled over appearing useflags, and I'd like my Gentoo to not care about compiling a bit too much, but instead to care about not bothering me. It also wasn't the first time this happened.

I'm no power user in the sense of tuning my machine. I just want my computer to do most regular tasks like opening all kinds of media files (without me even having to know which useflags I must enable to add the codecs to mplayer), and compiling all applications with the maximum feature set.

Differently put: I want all features which don't hinder each other as long as I don't explicitely disable them.

Is there a way to archieve that safely?

One idea I had is to create a "rich profile" which just enables most useflags by default.

In one sentence I'd put it like this: "Yes, I want that media codec, just in case that I might want to open a file which needs it in a few years or so."

And I don't want to have to check, if useflags change. When a program ran once, I want it to run forever, regarless of how much it changes internally, because I don't want to _have to_ care for it. There are enough programs where I want to care (and want to help others not to have to care). I don't want side issues taking my time.

I know that this sounded like a bit of a rant, and I'm sorry if my tone slipped a bit.

To me Gentoo is a masterpiece, and one I like very much. But this idea was on my mind for a long time, and eric4 not starting because the qt4 useflag appeared was the drop which led me to at last spilling my mind in here.

I think this bit might make Gentoo a bit more useful to users which multimedia needs, as well as to people who want to setup the system once and want to only worry about it, when they do something new.

But I don't know if my idea is the best way to archieve it, or if a better solution already exists and I just fell behind the curve since I didn't reinstall my Gentoo during the last three years or so.

Thanks for reading
_________________
Being unpolitical means being political without realizing it. - Arne Babenhauserheide ( http://draketo.de )

pkgcore: So fast that it feels unreal - by doing only what is needed.