[gentoo-user] using package.provided

This section is snipped one of Allen M. posts on the monster gentoo
health thread (last paragraph is where my topic starts:
[...]
  Archive a portage tree by all means. But if an ebuild is removed that a 
  user want to keep, the solution is so simple it's amazing. Copy the 
  ebuild to /usr/local/portage in the correct directory structure. I 
  maintain my own enlightenment-17 ebuilds, so to start I did this:

  mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/x11-wm
  cp -ar /usr/portage/x11-wm/e /usr/local/portage/x11-wm

  Run emerge. Simple as that. You might need to add an entry to 
  package.mask so that portage won't use later versions in the main tree 
  but that's all part of normal gentoo usage anyway.
[...]

In the event user runs with ~ARCHITECTURE flag set then masking won't
do it... right?

So my understanding is that user needs to set something in:
  /etc/portage/profile/package.provided showing an equal or higher
version number than what is available in portage (masked or not).
(To maintain users own package)

Assuming I got this much right, is there a better way?

I ask because setting a higher version number might eventually need
bumping still higher... or if versioning changes somehow will `higher'
not be noticed.

Looking for a way not to have to check package.provided to make sure
versioning is still good.

-- 
gentoo-user@g.o mailing list