Re: [gentoo-user] Package management, depclean and new installs

[Dale]

coalml@××××.io wrote:
> Hi y'all new confused user regarding package management
>
> How do you guys manage and protect your packages?
> Do you just put everything on world and end up with a huge world file?
> Do you have basic system files on world and the rest you protect or omit?
> Do you create new(personalised) files depending on category and
> somehow link them in any of the above 3?
>
> It's just emerging everything you are not sure you will keep with -1
> seems cumbersome to me especially if at some point I want to transfer
> to a new device and want to copy my settings over ,select what to keep
> and discard the rest,depcleaning with pretend all the time seems
> annoying on the long term as well so there should be lots of different
> solutions from different people(at least thats what I think)
>
> I just think this is one of the things its better I learn now rather
> than later and forum or wiki info is too "on-point" on a specific
> situation so I thought I'd ask the userbase


This is the way I've done it for a while, a couple decades.  Once I get
my new install done, everything installed that I want, I change the
default for the emerge command and add --oneshot or -1.  That way if I'm
trying to work through a upgrade problem, I don't have to remember to
use -1 to keep world clean.  My default emerge options look like this:

EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--with-bdeps y --backtrack=100 --keep-going -v -j5
--quiet-build=n -1 --unordered-display"

Obviously, depending on CPU, available memory etc, you may want to
adjust those to your case.  The key points here, the -1, --with-bdeps y,
--backtrack=100 and --keep-going options.  99% of the time, when I do my
updates with the command emerge -auDN world, that gives me a easy
upgrade.  There may be exceptions at times but generally that works and
gives me a stable system. 

Keep in mind, you don't have to worry about @system much if any.  It's
handled by the devs.  As for world, you only keep in there the packages
you use.  When you update or install something new, emerge takes care of
whatever depends on the package you want.  As a example, if you want a
full KDE install, you just emerge the kde meta package and it gets
recorded in the world file.  The emerge command will take care of all
the other packages that depend on the meta package.  That is a LOT of
packages too.  My biggest advice, if you find yourself fighting emerge
to get things done, you're doing something wrong.  These days, emerge
-av <package> should work virtually 100% of the time.  You may have to
adjust USE flags or something but it should just work.   

Over the years, I've adjusted options until I got a easy update path. 
This works really, really well.  I update once a week, usually Sunday
night.  Lately, I start late Saturday night or Sunday morning.  That way
I'm done and can update my backups Sunday night. 

Hope that helps.  Welcome to Gentoo and the source of good heat, lots of
compiling.  lol

Dale

:-)  :-)