Re: [gentoo-dev] Portage irk...

[Blake Watters]

The simplest way to take care of it is to run an emerge -up and then perform an emerge inject for any packages that would be downgraded. This will prevent it from happening on this merge and on into the future -- until another version of the package is released.

Aside from that, you're going to have to sit tight. You are, after all, running development packages and as such have taken on the added burden associated with that choice. 

Blake

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 14:18:31 -0500 (EST)
"Louis-Philippe Brochu" <lpbrochu@×××××××××.ca> wrote:

> > One way to do it:  remove whatever packages you do not want touched by
> > "world" out of /var/cache/edb/world.  The packages in that file are the
> > only ones that will get looked at whenever you run 'emerge -u world'.
>
> Well there is two problems with this approach. First one is that by
> removing this package from the world file it will not be updated anymore
> when a new version (newer than the one installed) is released. Second
> problem is that this hack won't work if the package removed from the world
> file is required as a dependency for another package you're trying to
> install. Portage will resolve the denpendency, will want to install your
> package and will downgrade it.
>
> > Secondarily, I suggest running 'emerge -up world' to see what would be
> > downgraded first, without actually running anything.
> >
> > Automatic downgrading is generally healthy behavior (if for example, we
> > unmasked a new version which later proved broken/unstable, therefore we
> > need people to revert to an older, stable release).
>
> Yes but there should be a way to disable this. An option to "pin" a
> minimum version of a package or to simply disable the possibility of
> downgrading a package (with a switch on the command line or better, a
> configurable option in /etc/make.conf).
>
> The case you are talking about *should* pratically never happen if
> packages we're tested *before* being released.
>
> > This is a FAQ...   I'm sure there are some enhancements to Portage
> > underway   which will make this issue more elegant/intuitive.
>
> I really hope the Gentoo developpers will add this functionnality. Ever
> since the introduction for the ~arch keywords packages updates have been a
> mess for me. If you are running on a stable system exclusively everything
> is fine. Same thing if you are running exclusively with an unstable system
> (with ~arch). If you never use the emerge world command you should not
> have many problems, just define the ACCEPT_KEYWORDS before emerging
> unstable packages and you're ok.
>
> The problem comes when you are using stable *and* unstable *and* emerge
> world command. Try to emerge world a mix of stable and unstable packages
> and see all the packages downgrades. Try to define ACCEPT_KEYWORDS, now
> Portage wants to install all unstable packages. Mask the old version of
> unstable packages you installed (or just remove them from the world file)
> and watch Portage trying to resolve a dependency for another packages and
> downgrade your package anyway... The only thing Portage need is a
> "don't-ever-downgrade-my-packages" function IMHO.
>
>
>
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