Portage 2.1 Features

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XenoTerraCide · Post by **XenoTerraCide** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:59 pm

Where can i find detailed information on all the new features of portage. I've been using it for a while but it seems the info still hasn't made it into the man pages.

I want to know which /etc/portage/package.* files I can turn into directories and how that feature can be used. More detailed information on how to use and how elog works. information on how to use confcache. I'm sure there were other things mentioned in the new letter. and most importantly WHY isn't this In the MAN pages?

2006-06-17 sticky --Earthwings

<3 · Post by <3 » Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:28 pm

I keep reading about the new features in portage 2.1 but no where do I see how to use these new features. I even tried reading the man page but I didn't see any documentation on the syntax for the colour remapping file (/etc/portage/color.map) or how to use the new elog function in portage. Also what is confcache and do I need it?

AaronPPC · Post by **AaronPPC** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:35 pm

Take a look at /etc/make.conf.example. There is a lot of information on the new features.

LinuxBlues · Post by **LinuxBlues** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:16 pm

/etc/make.conf.example

synss · Post by **synss** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:41 pm

For what I know,

elogs are documented in /etc/make.conf.example as said,
confcache: installing a program is mostly running ./configure and ./make install; the make call can be cached by ccache, and now the configure call can be cached by confcache. You do not need it more than you need ccache, however it should speed up reinstalls. I hope I am not dead wrong here.
/etc/portage/color.map forum
and I would also like to know more about:
GWN 2006-06-12 wrote:Configuration improvements: Certain config files can now be made into directories, for easier management (for example, /etc/portage/package.unmask/kde, /etc/portage/package.unmask/xorg will be combined to make the old /etc/portage/package.unmask). /etc/portageitself can also be loaded from different locations, making certain tasks much simpler.

bladus · Post by **bladus** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:49 pm

dont forget parallel-fetch

phajdan.jr · Post by **phajdan.jr** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:52 pm

See also [gwn]20060612[/gwn].

For confcache just emerge confcache and add "confcache" to FEATURES (make.conf).

XenoTerraCide · Post by **XenoTerraCide** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:45 pm

ok... how particularly do I use

Configuration improvements: Certain config files can now be made into directories, for easier management (for example, /etc/portage/package.unmask/kde, /etc/portage/package.unmask/xorg will be combined to make the old /etc/portage/package.unmask). /etc/portageitself can also be loaded from different locations, making certain tasks much simpler.

does it work with package.keywords? as well. would it make my life easier to unmask all of say... X11R7? there's no documentation. and the elog docs in make.conf.example are ok... but somewhat poor... they need to be more detailed.

richard.scott · Post by **richard.scott** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:10 pm

XenoTerraCide wrote:ok... how particularly do I use
Configuration improvements: Certain config files can now be made into directories, for easier management (for example, /etc/portage/package.unmask/kde, /etc/portage/package.unmask/xorg will be combined to make the old /etc/portage/package.unmask). /etc/portageitself can also be loaded from different locations, making certain tasks much simpler.
does it work with package.keywords? as well. would it make my life easier to unmask all of say... X11R7? there's no documentation. and the elog docs in make.conf.example are ok... but somewhat poor... they need to be more detailed.

From what I can see you just create a directory as /etc/portage/package.unmask/ and then put a file in that directory called 'xorg', and in that file list the packages you want to unmask. obviously the file doesn't *have* to be called xorg, you could call it anything and they all should get referenced

LXj · Post by **LXj** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:26 pm

_ph wrote:See also [gwn]20060612[/gwn].

GWN is just an overview and it even don't mention all the interesting features

(I actually accidentually heard about parallel fetch I think)

XenoTerraCide · Post by **XenoTerraCide** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:30 pm

that's why I want to know where I can find out about them... has nobody documented any of this?

yngwin · Post by **yngwin** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 1:14 am

Code: Select all

man emerge
man portage
man make.conf

didymos · Post by **didymos** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:26 am

Code:
man emerge
man portage
man make.conf

Yeah, that's nice and all, but there's a small problem: they don't actually help that much. Not one mentions a thing
about the /etc/portage directory features, and though confcache is in the manpage for make.conf, it's not that informative. The portage manpage is the closest you'll get with respect to /etc/portage/, and it only discusses the package.* stuff in terms of single files.

richard.scott · Post by **richard.scott** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:49 am

As time goes on, we seem to be getting wind of more and more changes in Portage. Which is great.....we need to change and make things better. However, what would be nice is to be told about them in advance. I think considering that this is a major part of Gentoo that this release has been handled very poorly indeed.

It would have been nice to have had a "watch out for these changes" in an earlier newsletter or something, rather than a "Portage 2.1 Released" announcement!

Paapaa · Post by **Paapaa** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:18 am

richard.scott wrote:It would have been nice to have had a "watch out for these changes" in an earlier newsletter or something, rather than a "Portage 2.1 Released" announcement!

We had at least this pre-warning:

http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20060 ... letter.xml

richard.scott · Post by **richard.scott** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:26 am

Thanks Paapaa I'd not seen that one

Infact that's my exact point.......it would have been nice to be told again about the things to watch out for and not just assume that everyone has read all the GWN's

yngwin · Post by **yngwin** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 10:46 am

What we need is that the Portage Features chapter in the Gentoo Handbook should be up-to-date and greatly enhanced with a good explanation of all the featues and how to use them.

richard.scott · Post by **richard.scott** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 11:22 am

ok, for those of you who want to restore the old 'autouse' feature, you can add the following to your /etc/make.conf

Code: Select all

USE_ORDER="env:pkg:auto:conf:defaults"

This worked for me

XenoTerraCide · Post by **XenoTerraCide** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:38 pm

I've actually been using 2.1 since pre-rc1 and I didn't know about some of these features. I filed a bug for an elog man page. this shouldn't have gotten released without proper documentation in man pages. the handbooks could be done later. but man pages should be available on system at time of release.

Jakub · Post by **Jakub** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:05 pm

A nice feature is the parallel fetch - packages are downloaded while compiling:

Code: Select all

FEATURES="parallel-fetch"

dmartinsca · Post by **dmartinsca** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 8:37 pm

/usr/share/doc/portage-<version>/NEWS.gz lists some new features and major bug fixes.

didymos · Post by **didymos** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 12:17 am

Here's a couple interesting undocumented features:

1. Put "candy" in FEATURES in /etc/make.conf and instead of the normal spinner, you see various quotes, one letter at a time as the cursor scans back and forth

2. emerge moo -- just try it

AllenJB · Post by **AllenJB** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 7:40 am

It would be nice if some of Gentoo's projects like portage had their own web pages with feature lists and documentation all in one place.

Earthwings · Post by **Earthwings** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 9:28 pm

Merged another thread from P&P starting at [post]3382147[/post] to this one, cheers synss.

XenoTerraCide · Post by **XenoTerraCide** » Sat Jun 17, 2006 9:54 pm

well since this is sticky maybe we should try to get some things straight? hey maybe the dev's can help out? or the mods?

Portage 2.1 Features

Portage 2.1 Features

how do I use the new portage features?