Updating policy...

[thom_raindog]

Howdie,

I wonder:
How often do I sync portage?
How often do I update my system, and, furthermore, which way do I update? Do I call

[Maliwik]

Well, you really shouldn't do it more than once a day. Even once every couple days is fine.

Personally, I sync mine once a day and emerge -uavDN world once a day while I'm at work so I can keep my system up to date. Of course, this really isn't necessary. Most people will usually do an emerge --update --newuse --deep world once a week or so (some will even do it once a month).

Whenever you do update your entire system, make sure you emerge --sync beforehand so you can grab the latest updates.

Edit:

Also, emerge -uavDN world is the same as emerge --update --ask --verbose --deep --newuse world. It's just the shorthand version. The --verbose will output specific information like use flags, size, whether it's an update, downgrade, etc. and the --ask will ask you if you want to perform the emerge.
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[thom_raindog]

Thanks already.

And just doing "minor" updating, like

[Maliwik]

emerge --update world will only update the packages that you installed. Here's an excerpt from the Portage manual: