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I've had a number of portage questions that don't seem dealt with so well |
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in the docs, that have been brewing in my head for some time. If these |
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are answered somewhere, feel free to point me at the docs, but if I don't |
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know where they are, they very likely need rather higher visibility. |
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Else, perhaps the docs don't exist or need seriously expanded and updated. |
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|
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1) Modules. For years I've seen fleeting mentions of alternative caching |
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modules, etc. Back when I saw the first references, I figured there must |
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be some documentation about them somewhere. But from then to now I've yet |
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to see any sort of proper documentation listing what's available, and why |
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people might wish to use these modules. |
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|
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What little doc hint I've seen is in the portage (5) manpage under /etc/ |
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portage/modules, but that's really all it is, is a hint. "If you use |
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something like the sqlite module", etc, doesn't give me any help with |
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where I can find a list of these modules, why I might want to use them, |
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and what the down sides (there must certainly be some as they aren't the |
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default!) might be. |
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|
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2) My understanding of metadata caching is woefully outdated and I'm in |
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need of a clue! |
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|
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Basically, somewhere, there should be a document that explains in "plain |
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English" the interplay between FEATURES=metadata-transfer, |
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$PORTDIR/metadata/cache, layman, eclass priorities, $PORTDIR/metadata/ |
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layout.conf (doesn't exist here, I gather that's funtoo or some such |
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related? portage manpage could say it doesn't exist in the main gentoo |
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tree or something), /etc/portage/repos.conf, emerge --metadata, emerge |
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--regen, etc, etc... |
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|
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When exactly should FEATURES=metadata-transfer be on, when should it be |
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off? Do overlays potentially with eclasses affect the answer? For |
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someone not using layout.conf/repos.conf, do the main tree eclasses |
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override everything or is there a preference for in-same-repo-eclasses? |
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Does emerge --regen still need run after a sync for if overlays with |
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eclasses are used, even if there's no layout.conf/repos.conf to change |
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ordering? |
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|
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3) This probably relates to my failure to properly understand #2, but it's |
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a special-case, so... |
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|
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Here, I'm running an ~amd64 no-multilib profile for my main machine. |
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However, it also has a 32-bit chroot image, built by following the gentoo/ |
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amd64 32-bit chroot guide with a few slight mods, that is where I build |
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the image that then gets ssh/rsynced to my (32-bit-only ~x86) netbook, |
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which neither builds anything nor even has access to a gentoo tree, as |
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everything's prebuilt and then rsynced from the ~x86 image chroot on my |
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main machine. |
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|
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On the main machine, both the native system and the 32-bit chroot share |
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the same gentoo tree and overlays using a mount-bind into the 32-bit |
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chroot, but of course, /etc/ is separate, so therefore /etc/portage, |
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make.conf, and make.profile -- totally separate portage configs. |
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Similarly, separate /var/ and therefore separate portage databases. |
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|
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The problem I've noticed is that after syncing (both the gentoo tree and |
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the layman overlays) and doing the emerge --regen, which at least used to |
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be required, on my main system, emerge dependency calculation seems to go |
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reasonably fast. Not so in the chroot, which seems to take far far |
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longer, and which doesn't improve much after the first run with the files |
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in in-memory disk cache, as the main system does. It's as if it's not |
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properly metadata-cached. But what bit am I missing and how do I correct |
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it? Do I just need to emerge --metadata? emerge --regen on the chroot as |
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well, even with both the gentoo tree and overlays mount-binded so |
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identical in both? Something else? Maybe the 32-bit is /that/ much |
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slower than 64-bit, even on the same machine? |
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Some sort of proper documentation allowing me (and others. of course) to |
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make proper heads and tails of all this is desperately needed. If it's |
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available already, then certainly we need a more highly visible pointer to |
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it, as I honestly haven't the foggiest and I'd not exactly call myself a |
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Gentoo newbie. =:^/ |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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