ebuild-writing/functions/src_prepare/autopackage/text.xml


1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<devbook self="ebuild-writing/functions/src_prepare/autopackage/">
<chapter>
<title>Autopackage</title>

<body>
<p>
If a package is only supplied in autopackage format, you must not add
it to the tree. If a package is supplied in autopackage format and
some other sane standard format (for example a source tarball), use
the other format only.
</p>

<p>
Autopackage packages are totally unsuitable for Gentoo systems for a
large number of reasons:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>
  To even unpack the package, you must run arbitrary code supplied by an untrusted source.
  </li>
  <li>They install directly to the live filesystem.</li>
  <li>Their intrinsic dependency resolver is broken.</li>
  <li>They do not support the filesystem layout used by Gentoo.</li>
  <li>They do not support configuration protection.</li>
  <li>They can clobber arbitrary files on uninstall.</li>
  <li>The linking mechanism used is insufficiently flexible.</li>
  <li>
  The entire format is completely unportable and highly tied to x86
  Linux systems.
  </li>
</ul>

<p>
Upstream are aware of these issues and have no desire to fix them <d/>
indeed, they pass off some of their most broken behaviour as
'features'.
</p>
</body>
</chapter>
</devbook>