Project:Portage/FAQ/Built Slot Operator Dependency Conflicts
This page discusses dependency conflicts involving built slot-operator (foo/bar:X/Y=) dependencies.
Common problems
Configuration problems that are unrelated to a given slot-operator dependency conflict may cause emerge to display conflicts which are automatically solvable in the absence of the unrelated configuration problem. In cases like this, the emerge --ignore-built-slot-operator-deps=y option is useful as a temporary means to ignore solvable conflicts involving built slot-operator dependencies (bug #598503 is related). This option allows emerge to focus on finding relevant issues that the user must address before the calculation can succeed. The emerge --ask option may also be helpful, since it allows emerge --autounmask to generate configuration changes and apply them if the user approves. After any needed configuration changes have been applied, and emerge is able to produce a successful dependency calculation, you should remove the previously specified emerge ignore-built-slot-operator-deps=y option from the emerge options because built slot-operator deps are essential for operation of the automatic rebuild mechanism.
In order for emerge to trigger rebuilds so that it can solve built slot-operator dependency conflicts automatically, the relevant ebuilds must be available and visible according to configured masking rules. If the ebuilds are not available or they are masked, then emerge will report any built slot-operator dependency conflicts that it did not have an opportunity to solve. It is possible to use emerge --pretend --nodeps to quickly check if given packages are masked.