BUILD_PREFIX referred to in manual but appears obsolete

[trueriver]

hi.

This has cost me a couple of hours puzzlement and online searching. I now think I have found a documentation bug.

This page in the online manual refers to a PORTAGE setting, BUILD_PREFIX, which sets the location for PORTAGE to hold its build files. The manual explicitly says that the build location ignores PORTAGE_TMPDIR.

I tried setting BUILD_PREFIX, and it made no difference. The builds still were being made in the default location. Also the value is not reported in emerge --info

I tried setting PORTAGE_TMPDIR and the builds moved with it even though that manual page explicitly says they don't

After a lot of online searching I found This 2006 forum page and this one from 2007 which each separately confirm that this value is no longer supported. The 2007 post asks for the manual to be updated accordingly, but obviously this was not done, or at least was not changed in every place it appears.

Please can this be done to save anyone else wasting time on this? It is not good that the same confusion arises several times over a period of six years, especially when the manual page claims to be up to date as of September 2012. This is not a complaint: I am just saying it is something that could do with being amended.

If I need to report a documentation bug to get this change considered, please post a short description of exactly how I would go about that, or even better a link to those instructions.

best regards,
River~~