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Apparently, though unproven, at 12:31 on Saturday 14 May 2011, Alan Mackenzie |
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did opine thusly: |
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|
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> Hi, Gentoo. |
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> |
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> Two questions about Portage whose ansers I haven't found in the fine |
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> manuals: |
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> |
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> 1. Where is it specified what is in "system" in the same way that |
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> "world" is in the file /var/lib/portage/world? |
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|
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That is defined in your system profile, not by you. |
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|
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/etc/make.profile is a symlink to something in $PORTDIR/profiles/ and that |
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defines the profile you are using. A profile is nothing more than a bunch of |
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files that define what your basic system consists of - things like minimum |
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packages to install, things that must not be installed, starting point for USE |
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flags, etc etc. |
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|
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Profiles are cascading, meaning that more specific profiles can include other |
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more general ones, defined in files called "parent". These contain paths to |
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other directories (which themselves can have parents), and the whole lots os |
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recursively traversed from the bottom up till all the branches dead-end. The |
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full complete set of data you get out of all that is your complete profile. |
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|
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The specific files that define the system set are called "packages" |
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|
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> 2. How does emerge know which mutt to build when I do "emerge mutt"? |
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> There are three candidate files in /usr/portage/mail-client/mutt, e.g. |
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> mutt-1.5.21-r1.ebuild. |
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|
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It will pick the ebuild with the highest version number, modified by your |
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rules concerning ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=, unmasked and masked packages. |
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If your system is set to stable (ACCEPT_KEYOWRDS=amd64 for example), it ill |
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pick between mutt-1.5.20-r18 and mutt-1.5.21-r1 as those are both stable. |
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Usually it will be 1.5.21-r1 as that is the most recent version. Normally you |
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will find two or more stable versions for most packages. This is by design so |
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that if an update on a stable system by chance breaks something, you still |
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have an earlier version to fall back on should the need arise. |
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|
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If your system is set to unstable (ACCEPT_KEYOWRDS=~amd64 for example), it |
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will pick mutt-1.5.21-r2 as that version is unstable (displayed with a |
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~ symbol next to it in output). |
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|
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Sometimes you get packages that are masked, indicated with [m] or [M]. These |
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are for lunatics to test, and there are rules concerning masking that you can |
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use to free these up for use (it's all in the man pages). Mutt does not have |
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any such packages but nvidia-drivers for example does. You must take explicit |
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steps to obtain the latest version. This is so that the odds of validly being |
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able to blame anyone at all when nvidia trashes your system are reduced to |
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exactly zero. |
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|
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Do you have eix installed? You should, great tool, and makes figuring all this |
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out a whole lot easier. |
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-- |
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alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com |
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