Re: [gentoo-dev] Creating multiple "installations" on the same host

[Paul Smith]

%% Lisa Seelye <lisa@g.o> writes:

  ls> On Tue, 2004-03-23 at 13:44, Paul Smith wrote:
  >> Hi all;
  >> 
  >> I'm interested in allowing Portage to install packages into disk areas
  >> rooted somewhere besides /.

  ls> Try setting the ROOT envvar.

But this unquestionably won't work: it's quite trivial to find examples
of paths in Portage which do not reference any variable, but simply use
a string constant fully-qualified path.

In fact, I gave an example in the email you replied to, from the latest
Portage CVS :-) :

        myworld=open("/var/cache/edb/world","w")

No setting of ROOT can possibly cause this to open any file other than
"/var/cache/edb/world".  I want it to access the file
"$ROOT/var/cache/edb/world" instead.

There are _many_ such examples in the code, esp. looking for things like
"/etc/portage/...".


Maybe I should step back a bit and ask, is it the design intent of the
$ROOT variable that, if set, it would behave in the way I would like?
Where I could keep multiple completely separate images rooted in
different directories on a single system?

If so, then maybe the changes we have made here are better termed bug
fixes rather than enhancements.  That would be nice :).

But, I don't think that this is so.  It seems to me that $ROOT is
supposed to do something different than what I want: there are
references to a root variable in the code in some places, but not all
places.

It looks like maybe ROOT allows you to redefine the installation
location only, BUT it still uses the Portage database and configuration
setup for the "real" system.  I need to have multiple completely
independent installations with different sets of packages, etc. so I
need the EDB, config (make.defaults, etc.) to be found in the ROOT as
well.


Maybe understanding what ROOT is for would help me with my confusion
about the db["/"] vs. db[myroot] question as well.


Thanks for the reply!

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 Paul D. Smith <psmith@××××××××××××××.com>   HASMAT--HA Software Mthds & Tools
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
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