quoth the Mark Knecht: > I don't buy that it's my issue created by a long time between updates. > I could turn on any machine that's sitting in a junk heap or back room > somewhere. It hasn't been powered up in a long time. I log in and want > to figure out what's in front of me with respect to updates. I type > emerge sync and portage deletes files. to me that's just wrong.
Whether you have bought it or not, it is what you have taken home by using Gentoo. This would not be an issue for you without such time between syncs, plain and simple. I don't think expecting users to sync at least once a year is too much to ask for a dynamic distro such as this one. What is the alternative? Have the portage tree grow forever, keeping old ebuilds and profiles that 99 percent of users don't need? Portage would likely be 10GB+ by now if it was never pruned. Seperate it into 'emerge --sync' and 'emerge --profile'? Sounds like more work for that 99% of users.... Also, it is not as if all these ebuilds have disappeared. They are all in the CVS 'attic'. Perhaps the profiles are there too. > As I say, I can get around the problem by simply copying absolutely > everything somewhere else to protect it. It just seems to me that's > not as slick as Gentoo really is. (And I think you know I LOVE this > distribution and have no desire to run anything else. My comments are > made ONLY in the hope that one day some developer will see the value > and look into some sort of change that would help with this. It's > happened to me with profiles, kernels, device drivers, lots of stuff. > It doesn't need to be an issue, or so I feel.) Feel free to post your suggestion to -dev, but I don't think you will find a great reception. One thing I have learned in the OSS world is that if a user needs some sort of non-standard configuration they are generally left on their own to create and maintain it. Devs cannot be expected to make everybody happy. Now: I realize this issue is obviously quite important to you, but I say it is 'non-standard' because I have never before heard anyone complain of this issue in 4+ years of using Gentoo. Everything you need to solve the problem has already been mentioned in this thread. Use an overlay, and point 'make.profile' to a profile directory that is outside of PORTDIR. Grab old ebuilds you need from the attic. Again, ask some devs if you like, but I do feel you will be left on your own with this one... > Anyway, enough of this. thanks! > > - Mark -d -- darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org "...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..." - Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972 -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
