On 03/19/2010 12:15 AM, Dale wrote:
> I think this is because people that use Gentoo do so because it doesn't
> install things they don't need.  Why install a package that is used by
> no other package?  It's pointless.
> 
> I would also add, if it gets installed and is used by no other package,
> --depclean should remove it.  Putting it in package.mask locally is sort
> of silly in my opinion.  There will come a day, maybe way off in the
> future, that something will need it.  Then you have to edit the file
> again so portage can install it.

I guess what you want is an emerge
--avoid-new-slots-whenever-possible option. You might also want it
to check for cases in which pulling in a new slot will allow you to
remove an older slot (that will require some additional work).

Having options like those would be really super, but I don't think
using package.mask to do it will be so awful.
-- 
Thanks,
Zac