[Slackbuilds-users] templates/ proposed updates

[Logan Rathbone]

On Wed, Aug 5, 2026 at 5:16 PM B. Watson <urchlay at slackware.uk> wrote:
> A question... does it really make sense to call ninja as "${NINJA:=ninja}"
> instead of just saying "ninja"?

Personally I'd have no problem just saying "ninja". I always just
assumed there was some reason it was done like this, for the benefit
of *someone*, *somewhere*.

I believe I have a couple of my own builds where I just use "ninja"
and go on with my life.

> It exists to support samu (from the samurai build). But why does
> anyone care whether a build uses regular ninja or samu? Is samu
> faster?
>
> If there are builds that don't work with regular ninja, that need
> samu, we'd just write "samu" in their SlackBuilds... it doesn't look
> like anyone's ever done this, though.
>
> I mean, we have an alternate implementation of meson called "muon",
> but nobody's proposed supporting it via "${MESON:=meson}" in the
> template.
>
> If someone *really* wants to use samu, wouldn't it make more sense to
> have a profile.d script that sets up PATH so it has a directory with
> a symlink samu => ninja, and let the user source that script? This is
> how e.g. cmake-opt works.

I don't have an opinion on this, but I think you make some good points!