Removed accidentally python-exec, cannot emerge anymore

[10B2]

During a system update, to resolve a block accidentally removed python-exec. When trying to emerge the python command is bad interpreted (maybe the python wrapper gone as well). Any general idea how to tackle this problem?

Cheers

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Not necessarily an immediate answer for resolving, which I think would probably best be done perhaps using some tools like wget or even git (if installed) to find a working binary or source of that package online and then install it into somewhere (like a temporary folder) which you can then add to PATH in the environment in order to call that. But I think there is even a better way online to retrieve a "fixed" or working portage if what you now have is really messed up. But really, how do you accidentally remove something in your description? That doesn't seem easy to do.

What file is it that is missing, and what architecture are you on? The more typical solution to such a problem is going to make use of some live media to repair the system, and it could involve some trickiness with the likes of chroots or at least mounting and copying working files over to the folders. Not a pretty solution. I will hopefully like to know if there is some way to download a snapshot of just portage, including the major dependencies like compiler, toolkit, and some programming language files for python (since the WHOLE THING IS WRITTEN IN IT)

[fedeliallalinea]

You tried with

[Naib]

You could symlink python36 to python and disable sandbox and remerge

You could alias python to pytgob36
_________________

[Maitreya]

And this maybe sound a bit "captain hindsight!", but in the future you might want to add "buildpkg" to FEATURES.
This way you can usually just unpack onto root system until portage/emerge works again.
(I know it saved me many times)

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

(I editted my response for clarity as I do sometimes)

captain Hindsight,
Meanwhile do you know is there a repository out there with working builds for these possibly devastating situations of suddenly deleting or missing an important system package???

I would hope that there would be with all the work done to maintain installations for multiple architectures? Otherwise all those pre-built packages on those CD's are sort of going to waste if they aren't made available for download somewhere else on an as needed basis for this kind of situation...assuming that the other suggestions haven't worked to resolve the iissue for OP.

Maybe if one doesn't already exist then there should be a list of the packages from the adminCD or installation CD that are available individually for download maybe, like a downloads.gentoo.org?

[NeddySeagoon]

LIsLinuxIsSogood,

There are several BINHOSTS. I usually only post a link when when is needed.

Fix My Gentoo always works.
In effect, you build your own BINHOST, as much as you need, with your settings, when you need it.

Maitreyas idea means you have a matching BINHOST to hand before you need it though.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[Anon-E-moose]

With a nod to Neddy

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

I fully agree that backup is the best solution albeit a preventative one.

But out of curiosity I went to google and did a search for binhost repository for gentoo, and this link came up...looks like python package as well as pretty much most other packages that you could need for the system (to stabilize it in crisis mode) is in there.

what is the guess about how one of these packages could work as a replacement, of course knowing that the point is not to rebuild yet, but just fix the broken system at which point in time reinstalling is always an options (for better USE Flags and CFLAGS)

http://packages.gentooexperimental.org/packages/

If nobody has an immediate answer here then what I will likely experiment with later is purposefully breaking Portage to see what happens if I have to replace it with this pre-built version of it from the download site.

One other thing is kinda confusing which I assume this link does not have anything to do with the actual gentoo distribution so it could very well be malware or something crazy. That would of course be good to have a sense of that before installing

[NeddySeagoon]

LIsLinuxIsSogood,

That's a Gentoo developers binhost but you are right to be wary. The Packages file at the top level of the tree tells how everything is built.
I'm fairly sure its generic, so if you use binaries from there, you need to rebuild whatever you install to suit your own setup.

If you configure binhosts in make.conf and use emerge -G portage will find a binary that fits or fail.
That assumes that emerge still works.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Neddy thanks for clarifying about the safety of that site, but what is still a bit confusing in terms of an answer for the thread here, why does this option not rank higher in terms of other recommendations such as finding installation media and stuff like that. Is it because the OP has a broken portage already, and wouldn't retrieving the pre-built binary still work from the web even without using Portage, and without setting BINHOST and emerge -G...just checking if question that OP posed was either fixed or else still open to find a way to merge a critical system component that is missing?

[NeddySeagoon]

LIsLinuxIsSogood,

Removing python-exec is a scary thing to do but not fatal to using emerge, so installing a binary is a bit over the top.
Its a little like --depcleaning your active gcc.

With a broken emerge, you need to treat each binary package as a mini stage3 and install it to / with tar.
You can't use emerge, its broken.
Installing with tar is a last ditch approach as there is no safety net. tar will spray files all over your system.

When python-exec is missing, fedeliallalineas

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Or in other words if the package was found in binary form that it has to match just well enough to take the next step in the process.

I somewhat disagree though about the notion that it has to be functional enough to be building more than just one or two packages, since following this step it would probably make sense to just rebuild the package itself, if Portage and everything was working fine.

However I am not sure about the python-exec one, and whether or not some prebuilt package can or would fix the problem with emerge.

I do agree with the idea behind your approach which I would assume that these suggestions for taking things one step at a time with diagnosing issues is a proven way to handle many possible problems of varying complexity. But it is rather unfortunate when the question arises about something small like this that the best solution to fixing the broken system has to get traced back to the install cd. But it makes sense I guess. I just figured that it would be interesting to provide a different approach but I suppose that fixing without diagnosing the problem is a recipe for more problems to occur.

[NeddySeagoon]

LIsLinuxIsSogood,

Lets take a worked example. Don't actually do this at home.

First an essential package.
Lets say you manage to remove glibc. Everything uses glibc. Nothing works, you can't even chroot into broken install because bash needs it.
In this case the correct course of action is to get a binary glibc for your arch of at least the version you were running.
Horrible things happen if you downgrade glibc.
You install the binary glibc with tar and all is well again. You run

[LIsLinuxIsSogood]

Great to see this level of detail in the answer laying it out nicely! Totally awesome, just now we have to hear back from OP on this topic!