On Wed, 2006-06-07 at 23:08 -0600, Trenton D. Adams wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> How stable are java related and tomcat5 related packages on gentoo with 
> AMD64?

Due to the lengthy migration project to Java5 along with low staffing,
some of the ebuilds have (necessarily) taken a back-seat.  I believe
this is the case for many of the JEE packages, whether or not your arch
is amd64 (as are most of my systems).

As the other reply indicated, there is a Tomcat ebuild in the
migration-overlay which is reportedly working, but I haven't used it
myself.

>   Is it safe to unmask them, or should I be installing a 32-bit 
> version of gentoo on my system?

I certainly don't think you need to build a 32-bit system.  The Java5
migration is probably a bigger factor in package availability than your
arch, especially for Java packages.  Worst-case scenario is to simply
download the binaries from Apache and "go outside" of Portage for the
time being.

It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  What works for
a dev system may not be suitable for a production environment, etc.  I
have binary versions of JBoss running, various versions of Tomcat, and
other packages as needed.

~ Greg