[LEDE-DEV] What's the purpose / gain from using VARIANT?

[Sergey Ryazanov]

Hello Rafał,

On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 10:10 PM, Rafał Miłecki <zajec5 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm aware some packages (e.g. upstream-ssl, hostapd, dnsmasq) use VARIANT.
>
> I don't really understand the gain of this. How does it differ from
> specifying separated packages?
> I'm looking at package/libs/ustream-ssl/Makefile and I don't see much
> code saving from using this VARIANT variable/feature.
> Looking at package/system/opkg/Makefile I can see BUILD_VARIANT is
> used for more specific CONFIGURE_ARGS. Is that where VARIANTS gets
> really helpful?
> Maybe I'm missing some real gain/value?

IMHO VARIANT usage helps consolidate patches in single place. E.g. if
you would like change some common code in hostapd then just create a
new patch and VARIANT build two packages  (hostapd/wpa_supplicant)
from updated code. Without VARIANT you should duplicate your changes
(patch) in multiple places and keep them synchronized. So the gain is
simple: reducing of unproductive work.

-- 
Sergey