Stepping through ebuilds

This article discusses how to step through an E-Build within their Local Overlay. When one emerges a package Portage executes  which steps through a series of build phases that retrieve the the source code, configure and compile it into an installable package which it can then be merged into ones system.

Phases
clean

Cleans up partially built packages

manifest

Rebuilds the package manifest (See repoman manifest)

Prepare

Collects and unpacks the source code into the work folder,.

Build

Compiles the source code into a binary.

Install

Generates a package from the build artifacts.

Merge

Merges the package into ones system.

(See the ebuild man page,, for a "complete" listing of these commands)

Debugging
To resolve an issue with an E-Build.one may step into the source before building it as follows :