RFC: cleanup of linux ports

[Mark Linimon]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005, Alexander Leidinger wrote:

> Mark Linimon <linimon at lonesome.com> wrote:
> 
> > This logic also assumes that anything that isn't a partial portname
> > or '7' should be the default.  This seems wrong.  IMHO after the
> > test for '7' should be a test for 'yes', which sets whatever is the
> > current default (currently 8).  Any other value should set IGNORE.
> 
> I did this because USE_LINUX was a trigger variable before. If set to any
> value (even "no"), it triggered a dependency to the default linux base.

It got changed not to be a pure trigger variable in 1.505, when the
acceptable value '7' was added.  Now we have the worst of both worlds.
If it can have multiple values then we have to test for illegal values
and reject them via IGNORE.  Implicit in this is going and fixing the
two current cases where the value is not 'yes'.  Otherwise IMHO this is
completely fragile.  Again, consider what happens when someone sets
'USE_LINUX=rh-7' which they might reasonably expect to do since they
can set it to 'rh-9'.  It should fail, not silently give them RH 8.

As well, I see this fragility as an opportunity to shoot ourselves in
the foot when changing default versions in the future.

mcl