>> So if there are any people out there who deal with binary packages >> alot... please can you help me out with the following questions..... > I guess I should volounteer here as that is something I do ;) Cool!
>> What and how is metadata stored in binary packages? > > USE flags used, and thereby dependencies are stored in the package, so > when you use downloaded packages, they override your own USE flags. > > CFLAGS are stored there as well (obviously , they are binary) > >> I read about the metadata all the time.... but I'm not sure what it >> actually consists of. I would guess the USE flags and gcc options that >> were used to make the package..... but I really would like to find out >> for sure. I'm fairly sure if I understood that a number fo the below >> questions would answer them selfs. > > > Metadata is all data that relates about a package. Most important are > the dependencies , controlled by USE flags, the license, homepage, > description and so on. :) This explains alot.... how can I query it? Is there some gentoolkit thing? Is it just a file in the tbz? >> Should -K require binpackages for all dependancys? >> I *have* read the docs here. I can understand some of the rational. > > from "man emerge" > <quote> > --usepkgonly (-K) > Behaves just as --usepkg except that this will only emerge binary > packages. All the binary packages must be available at the time of > depend > </quote> Yup.... that was all I could find... > As I understand it it will only use binaries, never compile locally. Well that's the way I took it too. And at the time I took it as a bug (as you suggest below) and this was the result: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35070 >> However if I have packages B and C installed.... and I want to install >> package A, with -K..... not only do I have to have a binary for >> package A, but I also have to have binarys for B and C too. This seems >> odd to me, I was expecting that -K would require that all unmerged >> packages and unmerged dependancys would require a binary package, not >> that all merged and unmerged packages require binarys. > Seems a bit odd that it would force the -re- emerging of packages. I think you misunderstand... it doesn't want to remerge them, it just wants the tbzs present. > I > guess you'd need to have them around for dependency tracking though. > (since portage in this mode probably doesn't even use the portage tree ) The only thing that makes real sence to me is that -K doesn't consult the portage tree in /usr/portage.... but what would the point of that be? I can see why the dependancys of the packages have to be found from the metadata in the tbz, but why does the dependancy's dependancys have to be found from a tbz of that dependancy? >> Does anyone know if that is the way it's supposed to work? Perhaps >> does anyone know why? -K would be an >> excellent idiot switch to stop my laptop doing compiles if I forgot to >> make a package.... but currently it's WAY too much hassle to use. > Not too sure. :/ It's not the end of the world... I'm just want to get it straight whats going on before I move on. I get the feeling that there is some clever 'thing' that portage was designed to do with -K that I havn't thought of. >> Why does "-puvg --deep world" differ from "-puv --deep world"? >> Any ideas? > USE flags probably. as -puvg --deep world will use USE flags and > therefore dependencies from the online packages, and not those > calculated from your machine and its tree. Actually I'm pretty sure it's not. I wrote a little python script, it gets a system's USE, CHOST and CFLAGS, sshs over to annother machine and sets the ENV to override the local portage.... then you compile... *perhaps* portage is finding the dependacys the packages listed in the world file by querying the metadata in the tbzs on the BINHOST.... that would be a real pain in the butt.... but would explain the behaviour. >> Now this is getting on my nerves as I really don't have much room on >> my laptop's disk. When I use -g with BINHOST (set in make.conf), I >> don't just download the required packages from BINHOST, I also >> download a pantload of the dependancys. This *really* confuses me, >> especially as the deps are already calculated and installed. Why does >> portage need the binarys too? > Now this is is strange behaviour, I think it might be a safteyprecaution > but I'm not sure at all. :/ >> Is there any way to stop that? Is it a bug? > File a bug , put it nicely and question it, I'm sure that if the portage > devs don't have a good reason, they can change the behaviour. :) I will have to pay extra carefull attention next time I'm doing a world build and make a bugzilla post I guess. On a slightly different note, is the building of binary packages realy all that rare? I would have thought that there were a few good few power users out there with multiple systems doing this all the time... but I can find next to nothing about it in the docs or searching... is this just done by the gentoo maintainers for GRPs and stuff? >> Many thanks to any portage gurus responding ;) > No guru, but I've worked with it a bit through chinstrap. Hey... it's all help to me ;) If you can think of anyone or anywhere better to ask.... Many thanks... Nick -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
