1 .TH "PORTAGE" "5" "Jun 2007" "Portage 2.1.3" "Portage"
3 portage \- the heart of Gentoo
5 The current portage code uses many different configuration files, most of which
6 are unknown to users and normal developers. Here we will try to collect all
7 the odds and ends so as to help users more effectively utilize portage. This
8 is a reference only for files which do not already have a man page.
10 All files in the make.profile directory may be tweaked via parent profiles
11 when using cascading profiles. For more info, please see
12 http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/releng/docs/cascading-profiles.xml
14 If you are looking for information on how to emerge something, please see
24 .BR /etc/make.profile/
54 .BR /etc/portage/profile/
55 site-specific overrides of \fB/etc/make.profile/\fR
57 .BR /usr/portage/profiles/
71 misc internal cache files
74 database to track installed packages
82 In the following sections, some terminology may be foreign to you or used
83 with meaning specific to Portage. Please see the referenced manpages for
84 more detailed explanations.
88 A string which matches a package. It is of the form category/package.
89 It may also contain optional logical operators and versions.
95 Each architecture has a unique KEYWORD.
101 A DEPEND atom that is part of the "virtual" category. They are used
102 when different packages can satisfy a dependency and only one of them is
108 .SH "SPECIFIC FILE DESCRIPTIONS"
114 The global default settings for Portage. This comes from the portage package
115 itself. Settings in \fBmake.conf\fR override values here. The format
116 is described extensivly in \fBmake.conf\fR(5).
119 The global custom settings for Portage. See \fBmake.conf\fR(5).
122 .BR /etc/make.profile/
123 This is usually just a symlink to the correct profile in
124 \fB/usr/portage/profiles/\fR. Since it is part of the portage tree, it
125 may easily be updated/regenerated by running `emerge \-\-sync`. It defines
126 what a profile is (usually arch specific stuff). If you need a custom
127 profile, then you should make your own \fB/etc/make.profile/\fR
128 directory and populate it. However, if you just wish to override some
129 settings, do NOT edit these files because they WILL be lost with the
130 next `emerge \-\-sync`. See the section below on \fB/etc/portage/\fR for
135 The existence of this file marks a profile as deprecated, meaning it is
136 not supported by Gentoo anymore. The first line must be the profile to which
137 users are encouraged to upgrade, optionally followed by some instructions
138 explaining how they can upgrade.
142 default-linux/x86/2005.0
143 # emerge -n '>=sys-apps/portage-2.0.51'
144 # rm -f /etc/make.profile
145 # ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/alpha/2005.0 /etc/make.profile
149 The profile default settings for Portage. The general format is described
150 in \fBmake.conf\fR(5). The \fImake.defaults\fR for your profile defines a
151 few specific variables too:
157 Architecture type (x86/ppc/hppa/etc...).
159 .B USERLAND = \fI"GNU"\fR
160 Support BSD/cygwin/etc...
162 .B PORTAGE_LIBC = \fI"glibc"\fR
163 Support uClibc/BSD libc/etc...
166 Distinguish machines classes that have the same \fBARCH\fR. All sparc
167 machines have ARCH=sparc but set this to either 'sparc32' or 'sparc64'.
170 Special USE flags which may be needed when bootstrapping from stage1 to stage2.
173 Special USE flags used by catalyst for building a stage3 and GRP sets.
178 Provides the list of packages that compose the special \fIsystem\fR set.
182 \- comments begin with #
183 \- one DEPEND atom per line
184 \- packages to be added to the system set begin with a *
187 In a cascading profile setup, you can remove packages in children
188 profiles which were added by parent profiles by prefixing the atom with
194 # pull in a version of glibc less than 2.3
195 *<sys\-libs/glibc\-2.3
196 # pull in any version of bash
198 # pull in a version of readline earlier than 4.2
199 *<sys\-libs/readline\-4.2
203 A list of packages (one per line) that make up a stage1 tarball. Really only
204 useful for stage builders.
207 A list of packages (one per line) that portage should assume have been
208 provided. Useful for porting to non-Linux systems. Portage will not
209 attempt to update a package that is listed here unless another package
210 explicitly requires a version that is newer than what has been listed.
211 Basically, it's a list that replaces the \fBemerge \-\-inject\fR syntax.
213 For example, if you manage your own copy of a 2.6 kernel, then you can
214 tell portage that 'sys-kernel/development-sources-2.6.7' is already taken
215 care of and it should get off your back about it.
217 Virtual packages (virtual/*) should not be specified in package.provided.
218 Depending on the type of virtual, it may be necessary to add an entry to the
219 virtuals file and/or add a package that satisfies a virtual to
224 \- comments begin with #
225 \- one DEPEND atom per line
226 \- relational operators are not allowed
227 \- must include a version
232 # you take care of the kernel
233 sys-kernel/development-sources-2.6.7
235 # you installed your own special copy of QT
238 # you have modular X but packages want monolithic
239 x11-base/xorg-x11-6.8
242 .BR package.use.force
243 Per\-package USE flag forcing.
246 In a cascading profile setup, you can remove USE flags in children
247 profiles which were added by parent profiles by prefixing the flag with
252 \- comments begin with #
253 \- one DEPEND atom per line with space-delimited USE flags
258 # force docs for GTK 2.x
259 =x11\-libs/gtk+\-2* doc
260 # unforce mysql support for QT
265 Per\-package USE flag masks.
268 In a cascading profile setup, you can remove USE flags in children
269 profiles which were added by parent profiles by prefixing the flag with
274 \- comments begin with #
275 \- one DEPEND atom per line with space-delimited USE flags
280 # mask docs for GTK 2.x
281 =x11\-libs/gtk+\-2* doc
282 # unmask mysql support for QT
287 This contains a path to the parent profile. It may be either relative or
288 absolute. The paths will be relative to the location of the profile. Most
289 commonly this file contains '..' to indicate the directory above. Utilized
290 only in cascading profiles.
293 If needed, this file can be used to set up a special environment for ebuilds,
294 different from the standard root environment. The syntax is the same as for
295 any other bash script.
298 Some USE flags don't make sense to disable under certain conditions. Here we
302 In a cascading profile setup, you can remove USE flags in children
303 profiles which were added by parent profiles by prefixing the flag with
308 \- comments begin with #
309 \- one USE flag per line
313 Some USE flags don't make sense on some archs (for example altivec on
314 non\-ppc or mmx on non\-x86), or haven't yet been tested. Here we list
318 In a cascading profile setup, you can remove USE flags in children
319 profiles which were added by parent profiles by prefixing the flag with
324 \- comments begin with #
325 \- one USE flag per line
329 This controls what packages will provide a virtual by default. For example,
330 if a package needs to send e\-mail, it will need virtual/mta. In the absence
331 of a package that provides virtual/mta (like qmail, sendmail, postfix, etc...),
332 portage will look here to see what package to use. In this case, Gentoo uses
333 net\-mail/ssmtp as the default (as defined in the virtuals file) because it's
334 the package that does the very bare minimum to send e\-mail.
338 \- comments begin with #
339 \- one virtual and DEPEND atom base pair per line
344 # use net\-mail/ssmtp as the default mta
345 virtual/mta net\-mail/ssmtp
346 # use app\-dicts/aspell\-en as the default dictionary
347 virtual/aspell\-dict app\-dicts/aspell\-en
352 Any file in this directory that begins with "package." can be more than just a
353 flat file. If it is a directory, then all the files in that directory will be
354 summed together as if it were a single file.
358 /etc/portage/package.keywords/kde
359 /etc/portage/package.keywords/common
360 /etc/portage/package.keywords/e17
365 If needed, this file can be used to set up a special environment for ebuilds,
366 different from the standard root environment. The syntax is the same as for
367 any other bash script.
370 Contains variables customizing colors. See \fBcolor.map\fR(5).
373 This file can be used to override the metadata cache implementation. In
374 practice, portdbapi.auxdbmodule is the only variable that the user will want to
379 portdbapi.auxdbmodule = portage.cache.metadata_overlay.database
382 The metadata_overlay cache module makes it possible to disable
383 FEATURES="metadata-transfer" in \fBmake.conf\fR(5). When the user initially
384 enables metadata_overlay in /etc/portage/modules, all of the cache files
385 contained in /var/cache/edb/dep/${PORTDIR} must be manually removed in order
386 to avoid unecessary cache regeneration. In addition, users of the
387 metadata_overlay module must never modify eclasses in ${PORTDIR} because
388 portage will not be able to detect that cache regeneration is necessary. If
389 the user would like to modify eclasses, it is safe to use metadata_overlay
390 together with PORTDIR_OVERLAY in \fBmake.conf\fR.
393 Per\-package KEYWORDS. Useful for mixing unstable packages in with a normally
394 stable system or vice versa. This will allow ACCEPT_KEYWORDS to be augmented
395 for a single package.
399 \- comment lines begin with # (no inline comments)
400 \- one DEPEND atom per line followed by additional KEYWORDS
401 \- lines without any KEYWORDS imply unstable host arch
404 # always use unstable libgd
405 media\-libs/libgd ~x86
406 # only use stable mplayer
407 media\-video/mplayer \-~x86
408 # always use unstable netcat
414 In addition to the normal values from ACCEPT_KEYWORDS package.keywords supports
415 three special tokens:
418 \fB*\fR package is visible if it is stable on any architecture
419 \fB~*\fR package is visible if it is in testing on any architecture
420 \fB**\fR package is always visible (KEYWORDS are ignored completely)
424 If you encounter the \fB-*\fR KEYWORD, this indicates that the package is known
425 to be broken on all systems which are not otherwise listed in KEYWORDS. For
426 example, a binary only package which is built for x86 will look like:
428 games-fps/quake3-demo-1.11.ebuild:KEYWORDS="-* x86"
430 If you wish to accept this package anyways, then use one of the other keywords in your
431 package.keywords like this:
433 games-fps/quake3-demo x86
437 A list of package atoms to mask. Useful if specific versions of packages do
438 not work well for you. For example, you swear by the Nvidia drivers, but only
439 versions earlier than 1.0.4496. No problem!
443 \- comment lines begin with # (no inline comments)
444 \- one DEPEND atom per line
449 # mask out versions 1.0.4496 of the nvidia
451 >=media\-video/nvidia\-kernel\-1.0.4496
452 >=media\-video/nvidia\-glx\-1.0.4496
456 Just like package.mask above, except here you list packages you want to
457 unmask. Useful for overriding the global package.mask file (see
458 below). Note that this does not override packages that are masked via
462 Per\-package USE flags. Useful for tracking local USE flags or for
463 enabling USE flags for certain packages only. Perhaps you develop GTK
464 and thus you want documentation for it, but you don't want
465 documentation for QT. Easy as pie my friend!
469 \- comments begin with #
470 \- one DEPEND atom per line with space-delimited USE flags
475 # turn on docs for GTK 2.x
476 =x11\-libs/gtk+\-2* doc
477 # disable mysql support for QT
482 Whenever portage encounters a mirror:// style URL it will look up the actual
483 hosts here. If the mirror set is not found here, it will check the global
484 mirrors file at /usr/portage/profiles/thirdpartymirrors. You may also set a
485 special mirror type called "local". This list of mirrors will be checked
486 before GENTOO_MIRRORS and will be used even if the package has
487 RESTRICT="mirror" or RESTRICT="fetch".
491 \- comments begin with #
492 \- mirror type followed by a list of hosts
497 # local private mirrors used only by my company
498 local ftp://192.168.0.3/mirrors/gentoo http://192.168.0.4/distfiles
500 # people in japan would want to use the japanese mirror first
501 sourceforge http://keihanna.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge
503 # people in tawain would want to use the local gnu mirror first
504 gnu ftp://ftp.nctu.edu.tw/UNIX/gnu/
508 A simple list of valid categories that may be used in /usr/portage,
509 PORTDIR_OVERLAY, and PKGDIR (see \fBmake.conf\fR(5)). This allows for custom
510 categories to be created.
514 \- one category per line
524 .BR /usr/portage/profiles/
525 Global Gentoo settings that are controlled by the developers. To override
526 these settings, you can use the files in \fB/etc/portage/\fR.
530 A list of all valid KEYWORDS. This does not include modifiers.
534 \- one KEYWORD per line
545 A simple list of valid categories that may be used in /usr/portage,
546 PORTDIR_OVERLAY, and PKGDIR (see \fBmake.conf\fR(5)).
550 \- one category per line
562 A list of all the packages which will be displayed when you run `emerge info`.
565 A list of all the variables which will be displayed when you run `emerge info`.
568 This contains a list of DEPEND atoms for packages that should not be installed
569 in any profile. Useful for adding the latest KDE betas and making sure no
570 one accidentally upgrades to them. Also useful for quickly masking specific
571 versions due to security issues. ALWAYS include a comment explaining WHY the
572 package has been masked and WHO is doing the masking.
576 \- comments begin with #
577 \- one DEPEND atom per line
582 # masked for security reasons
583 <sys\-libs/zlib\-1.1.4
584 # <caleb@gentoo.org> (10 Sep 2003)
586 =kde\-base/kde\-3.2.0_beta1
587 =kde\-base/kdeaccessibility\-3.2.0_beta1
591 List all the current stable and development profiles. If a profile is listed
592 here, then it will be checked by repoman. At the moment, only 1 profile is
593 allowed per stable/dev/KEYWORD; the last one found is the last one used.
597 \- comments begin with #
598 \- one profile list per line in format: arch dir status
599 \- arch must be listed in arch.list
600 \- dir is relative to profiles.desc
601 \- status must be 'stable' or 'dev'
606 alpha default-linux/alpha/2004.3 stable
607 m68k default-linux/m68k dev
608 x86 default-linux/x86/2004.3 stable
611 .BR thirdpartymirrors
612 Controls the mapping of mirror:// style URLs to actual lists of
613 mirrors. Keeps us from overloading a single server.
617 \- comments begin with #
618 \- mirror type followed by a list of hosts
623 sourceforge http://aleron.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge http://unc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge
625 gentoo http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/distfiles/ ftp://ftp.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo/distfiles
627 kernel http://www.kernel.org/pub http://www.us.kernel.org/pub
631 All global USE flags must be listed here with a description of what they do.
635 \- comments begin with #
636 \- use flag \- some description
641 3dfx \- Adds support for 3dfx video cards
642 acl \- Adds support for Access Control Lists
643 doc \- Adds extra documentation
647 All local USE flags must be listed here along with the package and a
652 \- comments begin with #
653 \- package:use flag \- description
656 app\-editors/nano:justify \- Toggles the justify option
657 dev\-libs/DirectFB:fusion \- Adds Multi Application support
658 games\-emulation/xmess:net \- Adds network support
664 This directory is used to store internal portage cache files. The names and
665 purpose of these files are not documented on purpose so as to keep down bitrot
666 as internals change. If you aren't working on portage internally, then the
667 details most likely do not matter to you.
669 This entire directory can be safely deleted. It is highly recommended you do
670 not do this however as it can be a time consuming process to generate them all
676 All installed package information is recorded here. If portage thinks you have
677 a package installed, it is usually because it is listed here.
679 The format follows somewhat closely that of the portage tree. There is a
680 directory for each category and a package-version subdirectory for each package
683 Inside each package directory are misc files that describe the installed
684 contents of the package as well as build time information (so that the package
685 can be unmerged without needing the portage tree).
687 The exact file contents and format are not described here again so that things
688 can be changed quickly. Generally though there is one file per environment
689 variable that "matters" (like CFLAGS) with the contents stored inside of it.
690 Another common file is the CONTENTS file which lists the path and hashes of
691 all objects that the package installed onto your system.
694 .BR /var/lib/portage/
698 Hashes which are used to determine whether files in config protected
699 directories have been modified since being installed. Files which have not
700 been modified will automatically be unmerged.
703 Every time you emerge a package, the package that you requested is
704 recorded here. Then when you run `emerge world \-up`, the list of
705 packages is read from this file. Note that this does not mean that the
706 packages that were installed as dependencies are listed here. For
707 example, if you run `emerge mod_php` and you do not have apache
708 already, then "dev\-php/mod_php" is recorded in the world file but
709 "net\-www/apache" is not. For more information, review \fBemerge\fR(1).
713 \- one DEPEND atom base per line
718 games\-misc/fortune\-mod\-gentoo\-dev
724 Please report bugs via http://bugs.gentoo.org/
727 Marius Mauch <genone@gentoo.org>
728 Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
729 Drake Wyrm <wyrm@haell.com>