[SOLVED] package.use file or directory?

[Xywa]

HI,

After a long time I am installing a fresh Gentoo system (stable this time).

In /etc/portage I could see package.use directory instead of package,use file, like used to be for 12 years for me.

I have to make some changes for 20 files, so easier for me is to add those changes to package.use file, than separately to 20 new files. Will be the system see package.use file together with package.file directory? Is it possible this way?

The same for package.mask, package.unmask, etc...

[charles17]

Just delete that directory.

[khayyam]

I have to make some changes for 20 files, so easier for me is to add those changes to package.use file, than separately to 20 new files. Will be the system see package.use file together with package.file directory? Is it possible this way? The same for package.mask, package.unmask, etc...

Xywa ... as charles points out, you needn't have a directory, however, one file within the directory will behave the same as your previous /etc/portage/package.use file.

You may want to keep it a directory as if you need to change package.{accept_keywords,mask,unmask} for a number of packages you can group these changes in one file (which may help you remember why you'd made the change).

best ... khay

[Fitzcarraldo]

I have individual files for the packages I want to set USE flags for individually, and a file I called 'world' for USE changes specified by Portage in order to merge world:

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$ ls /etc/portage/package.use/
acroread     clamav      dia      fpc          heimdal            libreoffice     openssl          samba        teamviewer   xorg-server
adobe-flash  cnijfilter  dropbox  googleearth  iputils            microcode-data  owncloud-client  skype        thunderbird  zbar
autokey      corefonts   eudev    gparted      kde-l10n           networkmanager  peazip           splashutils  wine
avahi        dbus        firefox  gscan2pdf    kdebase-kioslaves  nvidia-drivers  rxvt-unicode     synaptiks    world

For example:

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$ cat /etc/portage/package.use/eudev 
sys-fs/eudev -rule-generator abi_x86_32

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$ cat /etc/portage/package.use/world
.
.
.
# required by sys-libs/ldb-1.1.26::gentoo
# required by net-fs/samba-4.2.9::gentoo
>=sys-libs/tevent-0.9.28 python
# required by media-sound/pulseaudio-8.0::gentoo
# required by media-sound/mpg123-1.22.4::gentoo[pulseaudio]
# required by media-video/mplayer-1.2.1::gentoo[mp3]
# required by media-video/smtube-16.1.0::gentoo
>=dev-libs/json-c-0.12 abi_x86_32
# required by sys-libs/ldb-1.1.26::gentoo
# required by net-fs/samba-4.2.9::gentoo
>=sys-libs/tdb-1.3.8 python
# required by virtual/libffi-3.0.13-r1::gentoo
# required by dev-libs/glib-2.46.2-r3::gentoo
# required by mail-client/thunderbird-45.1.0::gentoo
>=dev-libs/libffi-3.2.1 abi_x86_32
# required by media-video/ffmpeg-2.8.6::gentoo[bzip2]
# required by media-libs/gegl-0.2.0-r2::gentoo
# required by media-gfx/gimp-2.8.14-r1::gentoo
# required by media-gfx/sane-frontends-1.0.14::gentoo[gimp]
>=app-arch/bzip2-1.0.6-r7 abi_x86_32

[Xywa]

What about Using --autounmask-write option?

Can this option do this automatically for me? Where are config files from that option?

Eg. when I am unmasking dozen those files with abi_x86_32 use flag, I would prefer to do this automatically rather than soendind an hour to do this manually. Is it -autounmask-write option safe?

[MarioCorleone]

What about Using --autounmask-write option?

Can this option do this automatically for me? Where are config files from that option?

Eg. when I am unmasking dozen those files with abi_x86_32 use flag, I would prefer to do this automatically rather than soendind an hour to do this manually. Is it -autounmask-write option safe?

In my experience in the last 12 months, portage has done --autounmask-write for me, i just say Y or N then do a sudo dispatch-conf

[Fitzcarraldo]

I don't use --autounmask-write myself, but notice the following:

--autounmask-write [ y | n ]
If --autounmask is enabled, changes are written to config files, respecting CONFIG_PROTECT and --ask. If the corresponding package.* is a file, the changes are appended to it, if it is a directory, changes are written to the lexicographically last file. This way it is always ensured that the new changes take precedence over existing changes. This option is automatically enabled with --ask.

So, if the last file in /etc/portage/package.use/ is named 'world', then you're good to go. You could of course create a file named 'zzzzz' instead, to be sure!

[khayyam]

Eg. when I am unmasking dozen those files with abi_x86_32 use flag, I would prefer to do this automatically rather than soendind an hour to do this manually. Is it -autounmask-write option safe?

Xywa ... when keywording numerious packages ~arch on a stable system, "safe" doesn't come into it.

best ... khay

[Xywa]

You may want to keep it a directory as if you need to change package.{accept_keywords,mask,unmask} for a number of packages you can group these changes in one file (which may help you remember why you'd made the change).

I have individual files for the packages I want to set USE flags for individually, and a file I called 'world' for USE changes specified by Portage in order to merge world:

Many thanks for all the explanations, looks like I am old-fashion Gentoo user, who did not pay attentions to the news

So it means for example, I could make eg. a group called video-making, and inside unmask some newest package like kdenlive, mlt, ffmpeg? So it will be easy for me to keep a control why did I unmask those package later on?

[khayyam]

So it means for example, I could make eg. a group called video-making, and inside unmask some newest package like kdenlive, mlt, ffmpeg? So it will be easy for me to keep a control why did I unmask those package later on?

Xywa ... exactly.

best ... khay

[keet]

I have /etc/portage/package.{use,keywords}/base, which has all the flags/masks for packages that I want. Then, I have, for example, /etc/portage/package.use/cairo-dock, which has all the USE flags required in other packages for cairo-dock to install or work properly.

That way, if I want to test something like Plasma 5 without switching profiles, I just make a file in each directory called plasma5 with all the flags and keywords that I need to install or use it, and if I no longer want it, I comment out or remove those files. It makes it easier for me to track why I set apparently random USE flags or keywords on packages. For example, why do I enable the gles2 USE flag on mesa? Oh, since that's set in /etc/portage/package.use/weston, it's probably because I needed it to make weston work.

[Xywa]

So it means for example, I could make eg. a group called video-making, and inside unmask some newest package like kdenlive, mlt, ffmpeg? So it will be easy for me to keep a control why did I unmask those package later on?

Xywa ... exactly.

best ... khay

Many thanks, works perfect, I made video-editing, games and some more folders. Great control, niece and clean, MANY THANKS!

BTW. I did emerge --autounmaskig for Chromium I think, and system was asking few times for "etc-udate", so now I have such message bellow. Where I could find what --autounmasking did?

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# emerge -puDN world

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!

WARNING: One or more updates/rebuilds have been skipped due to a dependency conflict:

dev-libs/libxml2:2

  (dev-libs/libxml2-2.9.3:2/2::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge) conflicts with
    dev-libs/libxml2:2[-icu,abi_x86_64(-)] required by (dev-qt/qtwebkit-4.8.6-r1:4/4::gentoo, installed)

[Fitzcarraldo]

Xwya, once you get used to using files inside the /etc/portage/package.use/ directory instead of declaring everything in a single file /etc/portage/package.use, it's not such a bad way of doing things and can be quite helpful sometimes. As you wrote, you can create files named e.g. 'video-making' -- or whatever name you want -- and declare whatever packages you want inside them. The only thing to watch out for is declaring the same package in more than one file, but I don't find that an issue really. After all it's not a big deal to check. For example:

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fitzcarraldo@clevow230ss ~ $ grep thunderbird /etc/portage/package.use/*
/etc/portage/package.use/thunderbird:mail-client/thunderbird lightning
/etc/portage/package.use/world:# required by mail-client/thunderbird-31.7.0::gentoo
/etc/portage/package.use/world:# required by mail-client/thunderbird-45.1.0::gentoo