[gentoo-user] webkit-gtk build failure and masking confusion

[John Blinka]

Hi, all,

A recent update demanded that I rebuild webkit-gtk-2.4.11-r200.
Unfortunately I cannot get this package to rebuild.

In my experience, this particular version of webkit-gtk has always
been a very fragile build.  I've put way too much time into wrestling
with it and I'd like to get rid of it.  There's a newer version:
webkit-gtk-2.18.6, which builds with no problems.

The only package on my system that needs webkit-gtk is gnucash.   All
of the stable ebuilds for gnucash contain this line
>=net-libs/webkit-gtk-1.2:2
And all of the versions of webkit-gtk in portage satisfy this condition.

So, I ought to be able to use webkit-2.18.6, right?  But, I cannot get
portage to agree to use webkit-2.18.6.  It insists that this package
is masked..  And I cannot figure out how or why it is masked.

Nothing masks it in /etc/portage.

It's keyworded amd64, which is what I'm running.

I have followed through all the mask/unmask files in my profile
(default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop (stable)) and have found webkit-gtk
mentioned precisely twice: in
/usr/portage/profiles/arch/base/package.use.mask and
/usr/portage/profiles/arch/amd64/package.use.mask.  The comments in
these files suggest that the use flag "jit" is masked in general, but
allowed in amd64.

So there's nothing I know to look for that seems to prevent any
available version of webkit-gtk from being considered.  Yet if I mask
off webkit-gtk-2.4.11-r200 in /etc/portage/package.mask and attempt to
build gnucash, I get his error message:

!!! All ebuilds that could satisfy ">=net-libs/webkit-gtk-1.2:2" have
been masked.
!!! One of the following masked packages is required to complete your request:
- net-libs/webkit-gtk-2.4.11-r200::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)

And that's on a system that contains webkit-gtk-2.18.6.

Can anyone explain to me why portage won't use webkit-gtk-2.18.6 to
satisfy gnucash's needs?

Thanks,

John Blinka