Re: valid categories?

[Roland Illig <roland.illig%gmx.de@localhost>]

Am 9. Oktober 2017 23:41:35 MESZ schrieb Brook Milligan <brook%nmsu.edu@localhost>:
>Hi,
>
>I am readying a bunch of packages to commit and have a question about
>the CATEGORY lines.  Some packages have multiple entries for CATEGORY.
>My understanding is that the first of those is the category directory
>for the package and any others (if any) are the names of other
>categories.  Is that correct?
>
>The main question, though, is what are valid names for categories?

See the pkgsrc guide, chapter 11.

See pkgtools/pkglint/files/vartypechecks.go, function Category.

That function codifies existing practice. There have been several discussions about this topic, especially about creating new directories; search the archive for them.

Adding a category to the non-directory special exceptions list is easier, just discuss it on this mailing list and if there is consensus, add it to pkglint.

>Please help specify the intended design for this.

The intended design is basically "keep it like it is now". The categories do not provide too much value, only a little bit. Therefore it's not worth investing too much work into them.

Roland