sean <tech.junk@...> posted 45441105.6060907@...,
excerpted below, on  Sat, 28 Oct 2006 22:25:09 -0400:

> Duncan wrote:

>> The addition of $CATEGORY in $WORKDIR is very new to portage.  You are
>> probably running ~amd64 and have a portage with it.  Sean will be
>> running an older portage (maybe latest stable?), without it.  That's
>> the difference there.  It /shouldn't/ have anything to do with the
>> problem.
>> 
>> 
> What do you mean by running a very new portage versus an older portage?
> 
> I know the difference between stable and the ~amd64 unstable sign.
> However, how do I specify, or know that I am running at least the most
> recent stable version of portage?
> 
> I was under the impression that when I did the following
> 
> 'emerge --sync; emerge portage; emerge --update --deep --newuse
> world;revdep-rebuild;revdep-rebuild'
> 
> that portage was brought up to date and all packages with it?
> 
> I have to find time to look over more of the Gentoo docs to see what
> regular maintenance I need to keep up on.

Yes.  That's all that's needed.  In fact, it's more than many do.  Many
don't routinely --update --deep, only --update, and many don't routinely
--newuse either.  I prefer to keep all dependencies and USE flags updated,
so I --sync and --update --deep --newuse world several times a week, but
only revdep-rebuild maybe once a month unless I suspect something might be
wrong.

What I was suggesting was that you are probably at the newest stable,
while I and presumably Vladimir are running newest ~amd64.  I've not
updated yet today and skipped yesterday, but...

$emerge --pretend portage

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies ... done!
[ebuild   R   ] sys-apps/portage-2.1.2_pre3-r9

I believe the category addition to the portage workdir path he mentioned
was only added to the 2.1.2_preX branch, which will certainly not be
stable, only ~arch, at this point.  2.1.1 will be the latest portage stable
series at this point, and I don't believe it has the package category in
the workdir path.  Thus, I was simply saying that he probably had it as
he's running unstable, whereas you were probably running stable and
therefore didn't have it.

That should explain that.  As for reading up on the docs, I'd suggest the
stuff in the Gentoo Handbook beyond installation, if you haven't read it
yet.  Namely, read (some sections you can just skim, you'll probably
figure out which ones) the Working with Gentoo and Working with Portage
parts of the handbook.  Gentoo is fairly well known in the community for
its generally great documentation, and it's a shame that so many Gentoo
users don't even read the handbook beyond the installation section.  It's
WELL worth the time it takes to do so, and by doing so, you'll know more
about efficiently sysadmining your Gentoo system, AND (unfortunately for
those that skip it) already have a step up on I'd guess at least 50% of
Gentoo users less than six months in.  As I said, it's unfortunate that so
many skip it, as it sure did ME a world of good, but a lot do...

Beyond that, read the various portage manpages, portage, emerge,
make.conf, ebuild (both man 1 ebuild and man 5 ebuild) and the notes in
make.conf.example and make.conf.global.  Of course, you don't have to do
this all at once.  Take a year to do it if you want, more if you need.  But
it's there when you are ready. There's all sorts of directions you can go
after that.  Gentoo is virtually infinitely customizable, and what's more,
it's relatively easy to do, AND there are quite good directions available
for a fair sized share of it!  The only limits are time, and those you
place on yourself!  =8^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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