Re: [gentoo-user] Confusion with eix output

[Mike Edenfield]

On 4/21/2010 3:48 PM, James Cunning wrote:
> I am having some trouble, I think, with my nvidia video driver, and eix
> produces some output I cannot decipher from information in the man page:
>
> jlc64 X11 # eix nvidia-drivers
> [D] x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers
>      Available versions:  [M]71.86.07!s [M]~71.86.09!s 96.43.09!s ~96.43.11!s
> 173.14.15!s ~173.14.18!s 180.29!s ~180.60!s {acpi custom-cflags gtk
> kernel_FreeBSD kernel_linux multilib userland_BSD}
>      Installed versions:  190.42-r3!s(11:04:43 AM 04/21/2010)(acpi gtk
> kernel_linux multilib -custom-cflags)
>      Homepage:            http://www.nvidia.com/
>      Description:         NVIDIA X11 driver and GLX libraries
>
> The man page goes into great detail how to specify many things, but doesn't
> explain in simple terms the format of its default outputs.  In particular, I
> don't understand what the [D] means, but would appreciate any clues to a more
> comprehensible explanation for all its output.

I feel your pain.  The eix man page is a perfect example of why GNU made
the info system (which is otherwise overkill in most cases.)

At any rate: eix's output tries to mimic the emerge -v output when
possible.  In this case, [D] means eix thinks your installed version is
higher than the latest unmasked version in the tree, and that you should
'D'owngrade.  You could also see 'U', if eix thinks you need to upgrade.

You probably need to eix-update after your most recent sync.  Use
eix-sync instead of emerge --sync if, like me, you tend to forget that step.

--Mike