not a valid package atom - something has changed? [SOLVED]

[hunky]

Sorry if this has been covered but not sure how to search for it. Tried a few searches with no luck.

I've noticed lately when updating that some packages are listed like this for example:
dev-lang/php-5.4.8:5.4 , or php-5.3.18:5.3 .
Gentoo-sources kernel has a similar deal - I suppose it is because of slots?

But if I want to update say php-5.3 because of some USE changes or whatever, I cannot figure out how to get past the emerge error of:
"is not a valid package atom". For instance if I type emerge -av dev-lang/php-5.3 or emerge -av dev-lang/php-5.3.18 or emerge -av dev-lang/php-5.3.18:5.3 I get that error.

What should it be? (this should be an easy one - sorry for being dense).

[edit] figured it out - needed the = sign in front of package atom.

cheers, JD

[khayyam]

hunky ...

or you can supply the slot like so:

[hunky]

Thanks khay! That's a bit easier than writing it all out.

cheers, JD