Re: [gentoo-user] Installing specific layman packages & eix-test-obsolete

[Grant]

>> in package.mask:
>>
>> */*::init6
>>
>> eix-test-obsolete find over 27,000 packages under this heading:
>>
>> Redundant in /etc/portage/package.mask:
>> ... considered as REDUNDANT_IF_MASK_NO_CHANGE
>
>
> The reason for this is the following:
> Since the category and package is */*, your mask can match every
> package - whether it matches depends on the package versions and
> where they are from. So, for every package the following happens:
>
> eix -T checks for all versions of that package whether your
> mask matches. Of course, for all packages which do not have a version
> in the init6-overlay, the mask does not match, i.e., eix -T recognizes
> that your mask has no effect for the tested package and thus outputs
> the packge. Only packags which have a version in the init6-overlay
> are not output.
>
>
>> Adding the following to package.nowarn doesn't seem to change anything:
>>
>> */*::init6 mask_no_change
>
>
> This does not help, since the packages which have no version in init6
> will not match this.
>
> You would need something like the opposite:
> */*::gentoo mask_no_change
> (and the same for all other overlays you are using).
> However, this will suppress also warnings coming from other lines
> in your package.mask file.
>
> So probably it is best if you disable the mask-no-change test
> completely: The quickest is to put REDUNDANT_IF_MASK_NO_CHANGE=false
> into /etc/eixrc.

I also get 376 matches from "Not installed but in
/etc/portage/package.mask" which are surely the packages in my overlays
masked by */* but not installed.  Do you know the name of this test so I
can disable it in eixrc?  I looked through man eix but couldn't find it.

So REDUNDANT_IF_MASK_NO_CHANGE and the above test are not compatible with
masking all but certain packages from an overlay via
package.mask/package.unmask.  I think what we really need is a better way
to install only certain packages from an overlay.

- Grant