Future EAPI/EAPI 6 tentative features

This is a working page that contains references to features that have been suggested for EAPI 6.

The following list of features accepted for or rejected from EAPI 6 is based on Gentoo Council meetings of 2014-06-10, 2014-06-17, 2014-06-24, 2014-09-09, 2014-10-14, and 2014-11-11.

New features

 * get_libdir
 * Used in econf, but so far not available as separate PM function.
 * Used in econf, but so far not available as separate PM function.


 * einstalldocs


 * Query function for IUSE_EFFECTIVE


 * Patch applying function in package manager
 * Needed for PATCHES support and user patches.
 * This duplicates epatch from eutils, in simplified form.
 * Name "eapply" has been suggested.
 * Name "eapply" has been suggested.


 * User patches
 * Name "eapply_user" has been suggested.
 * Will be called from default_src_prepare.
 * Will be called from default_src_prepare.


 * PATCHES support in default src_prepare

Enhancements of existing features

 * nonfatal die


 * Allow empty DOCS variable


 * Directory support for DOCS


 * Unpack .txz


 * Case-fold extensions in unpack


 * unpack accept absolute paths


 * Pass --docdir and --htmldir options to configure

Other changes

 * Bash 4.2


 * failglob in global scope
 * Only in global scope, not in local scope of functions
 * Only in global scope, not in local scope of functions


 * Ban einstall
 * Current einstall will break when --docdir and --htmldir options are passed to configure (which has been accepted for EAPI 6).
 * Can be easily replaced by an emake call, and is used scarcely in the tree.
 * Can be easily replaced by an emake call, and is used scarcely in the tree.

Deferred to future EAPI

 * Runtime-switchable USE flags


 * Variant of || with defined runtime behaviour


 * Directory support for package* and use*
 * Not intended for gentoo-x86 tree, only to be used in overlays.
 * Not intended for gentoo-x86 tree, only to be used in overlays.

Rejected

 * EJOBS variable
 * gentoo-dev discussion
 * makeopts_jobs and makeopts_loadavg in multiprocessing.eclass provide similar functionality.
 * makeopts_jobs and makeopts_loadavg in multiprocessing.eclass provide similar functionality.


 * Source eclasses only once
 * gentoo-dev discussion
 * Alternative solution is already in place in eclasses.
 * Alternative solution is already in place in eclasses.


 * HDEPEND: host dependencies for cross-compilation


 * dohtml additional default suffixes


 * Ban dohtml
 * Will be kept (deprecated) in EAPI 6.
 * Will be kept (deprecated) in EAPI 6.