EAPI 6

A new EAPI=6 has been released as of 2015-11-13. A noticeable changes and explanation of new features are given below.

bash version

Bash version Ebuilds can use features of Bash version 4.2 (was 3.2 before).

The ebuild file format is in its basic form a subset of the format of a bash script. The interpreter is BASH-VERSION assumed to be GNU bash, version as listed in table below, or any later version. If possible, the package manager should set the shell’s compatibility level to the exact version specified. It must ensure that any such compatibility settings (e.g. the BASH_COMPAT variable) are not exported to external programs.

EAPI	Bash version
0,1,2,3,4,5	3.2
6	4.2

Bash's failglob option

The failglob option of Bash is set in global scope, so that unintentional pattern expansion will be caught as an error. For EAPIs listed table the failglob option of bash is set in the global scope of ebuilds. FAILGLOB If set, failed pattern matches during filename expansion result in an error when the ebuild is being sourced

EAPI	GNU find?	failglob in global scope?
0,1,2,3,4	Undefined	No
5	Yes	No
6	Yes	Yes

Locale settings

It is ensured that the behavior of case modification and collation order for ASCII characters (LC_CTYPE and LC_COLLATE) are the same as in the POSIX locale. The package manager must ensure that the LC_CTYPE and LC_COLLATE locale categories are equivalent to the POSIX locale, as far as characters in the ASCII range (U+0000 to U+007F) are concerned. Only for EAPIs listed in such a manner in table.

EAPI	Sane LC_CTYPE and LC_COLLATE?
0,1,2,3,4,5	No
6	Yes

Ebuild Functions changes

src_prepare

This phase function has a default now, which applies patches from the PATCHES variable with the new eapply command, and user-provided patches with eapply_user, formerly known epatch_user. Example of code:

src_prepare() {
if declare -p PATCHES | grep -q "^declare -a "; then
[[ -n ${PATCHES[@]} ]] && eapply "${PATCHES[@]}"
else
[[ -n ${PATCHES} ]] && eapply ${PATCHES}
fi
eapply_user
}

nonfatal die

When die or assert are called under the nonfatal command and with the -n option, they will not abort the build process but return with an error. These commands are used when an error is detected that will prevent the build process from completing. Ebuilds must not run any of these commands once the current phase function has returned.

• die If called under the nonfatal command and with -n as its first parameter, displays a failure message provided in its following argument and then returns a non-zero exit status. Only in EAPIs listed in table as supporting option -n. Otherwise, displays a failure message provided in its first and only argument, and then aborts the build process. die is not guaranteed to work correctly if called from a subshell environment.
• assert Checks the value of the shell’s pipe status variable, and if any component is non-zero (indicating failure), calls die, passing any parameters to it.