Kotlin eselect Module

eselect-kotlin is a Gentoo eselect module which allows users to select a default Kotlin compiler to use from all compilers installed on a Gentoo system.

Installation

eselect-kotlin is automatically installed with a Kotlin compiler package for Gentoo. For more details about installing Kotlin packages on Gentoo, please consult relevant information on Gentoo Wiki.

Basic Usage

The Kotlin eselect module can be invoked with a family of eselect kotlin commands. The basic actions for this module include:

• eselect kotlin list
• eselect kotlin show
• eselect kotlin set

For a synopsis of the eselect module's usage, please run eselect kotlin help. For detailed instructions, please refer to the relevant section in the Kotlin page on Gentoo Wiki.

Gentoo Kotlin Compiler Package Specification

The following information is mainly intended for maintainers of Kotlin packages to help them integrate the packages with this eselect module. The requirements for Kotlin compiler packages are marked with keywords in bold, like must and must not.

Compiler Preferences

This module implements selection of preferred Kotlin compiler package for the following options:

• User compiler: The compiler preference for a non-root user account. The root account is not permitted to have a user compiler preference.
• System compiler: The compiler preference for all user accounts without a user compiler preference, including the root account.
• Compiler for a feature release: The default compiler to be used for a specific Kotlin feature release version (e.g. 1.4, 1.5) that applies globally to the entire system. This is useful when multiple Kotlin compiler packages for the same Kotlin feature release are installed on the system.

A compiler preference is stored as a symbolic link to the top directory of the Kotlin compiler installation. Each type of compiler preference is stored by this eselect module at the path specified as follows:

• User compiler: ${HOME}/.gentoo${EPREFIX}/kotlin/home
• System compiler: ${EROOT}/etc/eselect/kotlin/homes/system
• Compiler for a feature release, e.g. x.y: ${EROOT}/etc/eselect/kotlin/homes/x.y

Preference Validity

A valid preference is a symbolic link that points to a directory. Files that are not symbolic links, broken symbolic links, and symbolic links whose target is not an existing directory are all invalid preferences.

The following compiler preferences must be valid all the time, except when this eselect module is performing an operation, or a compiler package is being installed or uninstalled:

• The system compiler preference, if any Kotlin compiler package is installed on the system.
• The feature release compiler preference for every feature release with at least one compiler package for it installed on the system.

In addition, if no compiler packages for a feature release exist on the system, then the feature release must not have any pertinent symbolic link for its preference, valid or not, remaining on the system. This requirement allows programs to query if a Kotlin compiler for a feature release x.y is available by checking the existence of the ${EROOT}/etc/eselect/kotlin/homes/x.y symbolic link.

The above requirements may be met after invoking eselect kotlin cleanup and eselect kotlin update. The former command removes all invalid preferences, whereas the latter one creates symbolic links for the required preferences at correct paths. However, please note that eselect kotlin update is permitted to not overwrite any existing file that is not a symbolic link and then exit with an error should this occur.

Compiler Package Description Files

Each Kotlin compiler package on Gentoo must install a package description file under the ${EROOT}/usr/share/eselect-kotlin/pkgs/x.y directory where x.y is the feature release the compiler is for. The package description file's base name must be the same as the last component of the path to the top directory of the Kotlin compiler installation.

For example, assume dev-java/kronstadt-1.1.8 is a Kotlin compiler package for Kotlin feature release 1.5 that is installed to /usr/share/kronstadt-1.1, then its package description file shall be installed at ${EROOT}/usr/share/eselect-kotlin/pkgs/1.5/kronstadt-1.1.

The package description file must be a file that can be passed as the file name to the source Bash built-in command without any errors, and it must set the following variables in any environment where source is called against it:

• GENTOO_KOTLIN_HOME: The top directory of the Kotlin compiler installed by the package.

Note: In src_* phases for an ebuild, please use ED to replace EROOT because the ebuild is not permitted to use ROOT, EROOT or any related variables in those phases. When the package's files are being installed to the system, files in ED will be copied into EROOT.

Kotlin Tools Recognized by This Module

This module supports the following Kotlin tool commands:

• kapt
• kotlin
• kotlinc
• kotlinc-js
• kotlinc-jvm
• kotlin-dce-js

The executables for those commands are installed by this module into /usr/bin. Kotlin compiler packages must not install executables with the same name into /usr/bin.

Kotlin Tool Launcher Script

To honor Kotlin compiler preference for different users, the system and all installed Kotlin feature releases, a Kotlin tool launcher script that reads the preferences and selects the compiler accordingly is installed to ${EROOT}/usr/libexec/eselect-kotlin/run-kotlin-tool.sh, and the Kotlin tool executables are installed as symbolic links to this script.

The Kotlin tool launcher script selects the Kotlin compiler package using the following rules, in order:

1. If the Kotlin tool command being invoked is versioned, i.e. it contains the Kotlin feature release version number at the end of its name (see the next section for more details), then it uses the preferred compiler package for the feature release indicated in the command name.

2. If the GENTOO_KOTLIN_VER environment variable is set to a valid Kotlin feature release version number, then it uses the preferred compiler package for the indicated feature release. The variable's value can also be system, in which case the package selected by the system compiler preference is used.

3. If the user compiler preference is set, then the package selected by it is used.

4. The package selected by the system compiler preference is used.

It is an error if any of the following conditions is met:

• The Kotlin tool launcher script is invoked directly.
• The Kotlin version specification (set either by the versioned command's name or GENTOO_KOTLIN_VER) or the user/system compiler preference picked by the script is invalid.
• The tool command does not exist in the bin directory under the top directory of the Kotlin compiler installation selected by the script.

Versioned Tool Commands

This module also supports versioned commands for each of the Kotlin tools listed above whose names are in the format of <tool-name><feature-release>. For example, kotlinc1.5 is a versioned command supported by this module for kotlinc from a Kotlin compiler package for Kotlin feature release 1.5.

This module neither installs nor requires versioned commands. Kotlin compiler packages may install versioned commands that adhere to the name format by creating symbolic links to the Kotlin tool launcher script.

Note: Great care must be exercised if multiple Kotlin compiler packages for the same feature release that install the versioned commands exist. If each package installs its own set of versioned commands under the same location, then it will likely cause a file collision between packages. It is recommended that the versioned commands are not associated with any specific Kotlin compiler package. Possible ways of achieving this include making a separate package dedicated for the versioned commands and creating an eclass for Kotlin compiler packages that manages the versioned commands without registering them as a package's files.