Quoting iainduncan(a)telus.net: If you want to try another source-based distro, give Source Mage a go. It lets you configure, tweak, and optimize anything that's possible, but installing packages might not be as hard as with Gentoo. The documentation isn't as plentiful yet, though, but you'll find myself and a bunch of other helpful people on #sourcemage. </shameless plug> Juuso ---------------------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through L-secure: http://www.l-secure.net/

Replace 'emerge' with 'cast' and you're set (to answer some dependency & options queries and wait for compile to finish), providing that spells (we call our packages that) exist for those apps. Some audio app spells are still missing from our grimoires (repositories), but I can whip them up in no time. I've added audio apps at a steady rate during the past weeks, and plan on doing so until all necessary ones are available. If you go Source Mage and find that something's missing, just make a request. And now onto another interesting subject: What do you mean by "cross-distro metadata format"? Do you mean a data file shipped with the sources that would include info about required and optional dependencies, etc? I see many reasons why something like that wouldn't work, one of the largest being that packages aren't (and won't be) homogenously named across distros. Also build systems differ considerably, and a metadata format that tries to give a detailed specification about what configure options do which things and how they are applied, it would be... well, another build system. :) I _can_ imagine establishing a unified format for source-based distros, but that would effectively mean forcing the same package manager unto all. I don't see that as a real solution. Besides, in these things the most popular usually wins, and the most popular isn't necessary the best. That being said, I must add that (from a source-based developer's point of view) a common metadata format for source packages already exists: It's the metadata that forms inside a developer's mind as he reads the README and INSTALL files, the author's web site, documentation, the output of './configure --help' (or an equivalent), the content of the Makefiles, and finally when he tests all the possible build options to see what it is that they do. :) You do realize that you've effectively locked yourself in the current position with that, right? :) I have the impression that proaudio-overlay is a Gentoo repository, which means you'll not find it outside Gentoo, either. But if you're asking whether Source Mage has a repository (grimoire) like that, the answer is no. Instead we have one large main grimoire where you'll find everything you need, except games and non-Free/binary packages (those are in separate grimoires). Juuso PS: List members, please: Just let me know if this is too OT, I'll continue in private if necessary. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through L-secure: http://www.l-secure.net/