emerge --sync [only firefox?]

xodarap · n00b Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 23

I have a dial-up connection, so running emerge --sync often is not a practical option for me. I was attempting to install mozilla firefox using an old portage tree, I was wondering whether I can just sync the firefox part of the portage tree? How do I go about doing this/ what command do I have to type? Or how do I install the latest version of firefox without using emerge --sync prior to doing this, but still using emerge instead of uncompressing etc.?

yabbadabbadont · Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:44 pm Post subject:

I don't think that you can only sync part of the tree. :-(

When I was using dial-up, I found that syncing every day worked better. Very little changes (usually) from one day to the next, so the amount of data downloaded was minimal for any one sync.

lnxz · Guru Joined: 03 Jul 2005 Posts: 472 Location: Earth

You *could* exclude everything not related to firefox in /etc/portage/rsync_excludes.
If you want to do that, the best soloution would be to have a file called rsync_excludes_firefox, and everytime you want to just update firefox you make a symlink like this:
ln -s /etc/rsync_excludes_firefox /etc/rsync_excludes, then run emerge --sync, when done with that remove the symlink.
Not very effective, but that's the only way I can think of that enables you to only sync parts of the tree.

The best and most effective way imho is to go to for example gentoo-portage.com, look up mozilla-firefox, click the link to the latest ebuild, put the ebuild in your tree/overlay, digest it and run emerge -vua mozilla-firefox.
Repeat these steps for all dependencies that need to be updated.

yabbadabbadont · Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 3:00 am Post subject:

Cool!

I didn't know about those options.
I've been away from Gentoo for a while. (but I'm feeling much better now) :-)

lnxz · Guru Joined: 03 Jul 2005 Posts: 472 Location: Earth

Quick and dirty draft for a wrapper for the first method I mentioned. Never tested this, so I don't know if will run at all and it's probably full of errors, so please don't copy and paste unless you really don't care what happens to your system.
I doubt running this will cause any harm, though, but you never know with computers. Needless to say I take no responsibility if you do choose to try it unedited.

xodarap · n00b Joined: 20 Dec 2004 Posts: 23

Thanks lnxz, that was a helpful trick especially for someone who has access through the internet at ridiculously slow dial-up speeds.

regards...