Martin Vaeth <mar...@mvath.de> wrote: > >> Even if I believe in a metadata angel and if we pretend that the PMS >> requires the metadata to be there, then rebuilding whenever metadata >> changes is still not 100% correct (as you point out), because it often >> rebuilds pointlessly. But that's getting into a harder problem.
Oh, I think I misunderstood you here. If the PM would always "prefer" the repository's metadata (if available) over the installed metadata, it would not be necessary to rebuild packages only because the metadata has changed (or, alternatively, portage could just update the installed metadata in such cases). A "forced" rebuild would then only be necessary in special situations, e.g. if a subslot dependency resolves differently. That's why prefering repository metadata over installed metadata requires some "smartness" of the package manager; there are still several corner cases where it is a political decision whether to rebuild. Currently, portage has this smartness only partially (subslot resolving does not work), and portage has no mechanism to just update installed metadata without recompilation.
