Thus, to fix my problem, a couple months ago I got fed up enough. Every time I `emerge rsync', it replaces the package.mask file, which I had, of course, changed. Then, the several packages that I've unmasked are of course masked again, and the few masks that I added myself for packages that aren't working for me are removed. So, it made an `emerge rsync' a painstaking process - so I wrote a script called 'unmask', which simply had a big perl regular expression for unmasking packages, and a list of packages to add to the end of package.mask. After each emerge rsync, I'd just run my script and I'd have all the unwanted masks commented out, and all the wanted ones added back in.
It worked for me for a couple months (I unmask about 25 packages, and mask 8), until a friend of mine decided to write something much more sophisticated (it beats me as to why, since he just adds two masks, but he did). This new one is far more sophisticated in that it doesn't simply have a list of things in the file, as mine did, but it performs a merge of /usr/local/portage/profiles/package.mask and the /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask.
Since there is no way to attach a file to a post (hint, hint, forum maintainers), I've put it up here:
http://www.gforum.org/unmask
It requires perl, PORTDIR_OVERLAY enabled, and a $PORTDIR_OVERLAY/profiles/package.mask file.
Here is my sample /usr/local/portage/profiles/package.mask file:
Code: Select all
# Don't want to deal with this yet
>=dev-perl/mod_perl-1.99
# Don't want to deal with this yet
>=net-www/apache-2
# The ATI drivers don't support this yet
>=x11-base/xfree-4.2.99
# Can't emerge this until I find a new working kernel
>=sys-apps/lm_sensors-2.7.0
# Broken kernel
=sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r1
# won't compile. Darn.
=app-text/docbook-sgml-utils-0.6.12
# Doesn't compiled (missing semicolons!? Who releases these ebuilds??)
=net-fs/samba-2.2.8_pre1
# Reports speed as -inf
>=sys-apps/hdparm-5.3
# <azarah@gentoo.org> (07 Jan 2003)
# new alpha release. do not use tmpfs by default for dep cache, and
# move dep cache dir to /var/state/init.d. also some raid updates.
!>=sys-apps/baselayout-1.8.6.0
#!=sys-apps/baselayout-1.8.6.1
#!=sys-apps/baselayout-1.8.6.2
#!=sys-apps/baselayout-1.8.6.3
#!=sys-apps/baselayout-1.8.6.4
# <phoenix@gentoo.org> (21 Nov 2002)
# The huge nsplugins mask. These plugins use
# the new layout (/usr/lib/nsbrowser/plugins)
# and should work in both mozilla and phoenix.
!=app-text/acroread-5.06-r2
!=net-www/netscape-flash-6.0b-r1
!=net-www/netscape-plugger-4.0-r2
!=media-video/realplayer-8-r3
!=app-text/djvu-3.5.9-r1
!=dev-java/sun-jdk-1.4.1.01-r1
!=dev-java/sun-jdk-1.3.1.06-r1
!=dev-java/ibm-jdk-1.4.0-r2
!=dev-java/ibm-jre-1.4.0-r2
!=dev-java/ibm-jdk-1.3.1-r2
!=dev-java/ibm-jre-1.3.1-r2
# MySQL 4
!>=dev-db/mysql-4.0.1_alpha
# Gtk2 version of glade:
!>=dev-util/glade-1.1.0
!>=dev-util/glademm-1.1.0
# gimp-1.3 supports perl 5.8 (1.2 does not)
!>=media-gfx/gimp-1.3.5
# evolution beta and friends. may cause breakage!
!>=net-mail/evolution-1.3.1
!>=gnome-extra/gal-1.99
!>=app-text/gnome-spell-1.0
!>=gnome-extra/gtkhtml-3.0
!>=gnome-extra/libgtkhtml-3.0
!>=net-libs/libsoup-1.99
# depends on moz gtk2 which is not well tested yet
!>=net-www/galeon-1.3.2
!>=sys-apps/baselayout-1.8.6.0
That does just what you expect it to do - it unmasks any baselayout mask that applies to 1.8.6.0 or above (thus actually unmasking 5 lines in the file).
Please download it, and give it a try - I saved it to /usr/local/bin/unmask, but anywhere in your path will work. If you use sudo, as I do, it'll let you run it as a user; otherwise you have to be root.
I guess that's what happen when things get bigger. 
