Avoid recompile of Firefox & Libreoffice @ aux changed-USE

[mh4it]

Is there a way to block certain large source packages from recompiling over a single USE flag --update --changed-use --deep @world
(i.e. Firefox & Libreoffice)

I need to remove gstreamer USE flag in make.conf and re-add it after adding lots of gst-plugins. This troubleshooting step is impossible because the USE flag --changed-use will trigger firefox and libreoffice to completely recompile and it will take all night x 2 for an i5 laptop.

This does not appear to be the case of a masked package. Is there an argument of portage to overlook certain quasi dependent USE changes?

[Buffoon]

You can pass --exclude to emerge. See man emerge.

[mh4it]

Thanks, I should have checked there first, I do have it saved already. I wonder how many people have a long list of excludes for USE updates?

Do you happen to have an example of correct usage?
I've tried:
emerge --update --changed-use --exclude firefox-38.7.0 --deep @world

[ct85711]

try without firefox's version (you shouldn't need to put the version in it for a package that isn't slotted, if you need to specify a version you need to use the full atom with the =, >=, >, <, <= just like in masking and package.use)

[mh4it]

I tried this

[ct85711]

first off, why are you so insistant on putting a version on the firefox? Firefox is not slotted, so only 1 version can be installed at a time...

second, when using --exclude, that is only for the time when you use that flag, it does not stay after emerge is done (meaning you will have to keep putting it back on)

third, using either -a or -pv is highly recommended, to check what portage is going to do (Never blindly assume portage is going to do what you think it is doing)

fourth, where did those quotes come from? as portage does NOT use them, and I know for sure packages don't have spaces in their names for that to be a concern.

Note: Firefox and firefox-bin are 2 seperate packages in portage

[Buffoon]

You need quotes when excluding multiple packages, e. g. --exclude 'firefox libreoffice'.