[gentoo-user] Looking at Sources

[James]

Hello,

A better method to review code?

I find myself having to audit the code inside
of ebuilds in order to understand how a given
piece of code has been changed. 

So what I do is go to the /usr/portage/distfiles 
and then use vi to look at the file listing;
move up and down to select the file of interest
and then enter the file (yes from inside of vi).
Not very elegant, but does not require unpacking the
files.

Definitely not the best approach, but, I do not
want the unpack the sources, most of the time.
Suggestions as to a better quick approach for reviewing sources?

If I want  to unpack the sources and modify
some code, what would be the recommended semantics?
Maybe make a dir under /usr/local and open the packages
as James-overlay(package), modify the code, install it
and test? (What do the "Titans of code" do?)

Maybe use/hack my own slot  numbers?
Any guidance or dev documents as to how most
G_devs do this is of keen interest to me.
I'm looking for a  (proper) methodology to start cleaning
up some codes that are neglected. Surely there
is a preferred methodology?



James