Hi, I found out (using the source & inserting log statements :-) that my peculiar format of make.conf was the culprit. For reasons too silly to explain here :-) I built up my USE variable in more than one line: USE="<....some flags>" USE="$USE <more flags>" (basically to make a use flag comparison somewhat easier). This is totally deadly for update-eix b/c of the way USE flags are read. In update-eix there is a "VarsReader" class reading in variables - basically a parser. The VarsReader may read more than one file (for example when reading the profiles) and has the option to append the new value of a variable to the old value. This is done for "USE". Unfortunately there is no provision to switch from this "append" behaviour to "overwrite old value as long as we are in the same file". Result: Each USE="$USE <line n>" line first expands the last value of $USE, appends <line n> it and APPENDS THIS WHOLE LINE TO THE OLD VALUE - i.e. the USE values already here get appended AGAIN. This gives you a verrry nice demonstration of exponential growth :-)
Now just imagine writing more than 10 such "USE=..." lines, and you get a string growing for a factor of 2^10=1024. Voila :-) Cheers, Wolfgang -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list