*removedlotsofideas* your ideas sound nice on paper. But one strenght of portage and its structures: no matter how hosed your 'data', you can repair it with cp, mv, an emerge sync and a text editor.
Which is all not true, if you start using some database crap. Go, look at /var/db/pkg - you can read and repair that stuff easily. Or the files in /var/lib/portage. Damaged world-file? nano FTW! -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
