Portage

is Gentoo's package manager, and is installed by default as part of the stage3 install. See the Gentoo Handbook for more details.

Overlays
In addition to the official repository (colloquially known as "portage tree" because of its traditional placement in ), there are additional repositories which in Gentoo are called overlays.


 * Gentoo Overlays: Users' Guide
 * Layman homepage
 * Browse overlays

You can search through the ebuilds available in the overlays on http://overlays.gentoo.org/ by using eix.

emerge
emerge is the command-line interface to the Portage system.

Blocking conflicts
If a package blocks another package we may get what is called "blocking conflicts". This means that two packages conflict in such a way that they cannot be installed simultaneously. These conflicts are often a result of file collisions.

In some cases, packages that block each other can be temporarily installed simultaneously. In order to resolve file collisions that occur between two blocking packages that are installed simultaneously, the overlapping files must be removed from the contents list of the package which was installed first.

Some cases may exist such that temporary simultaneous installation of blocking packages will cause some sort of problem. However, this type of solution will only be chosen for blockers that can not be satisfied in any other way, such as by simple adjustment of merge order. In addition, this type of solution will not be chosen if a blocking package will overwrite files belonging to packages from the system set, or packages that are runtime dependencies of Portage itself. These constraints serve to limit the probability that a chosen solution will cause an unforeseen problem.

gtk-doc-am vs. gtk-doc-1.8-r2

These are the packages that would be merged, in reverse order:

Calculating dependencies... done! [blocks b    ] dev-util/gtk-doc-am (is blocking dev-util/gtk-doc-1.8-r2) [uninstall   ]  dev-util/gtk-doc-1.8-r2  USE="emacs -debug -doc" [nomerge     ] x11-libs/gtk+-2.12.9-r2  USE="X cups jpeg tiff xinerama -debug -doc -vim-syntax" [ebuild N    ]  dev-util/gtk-doc-am-1.10-r1  0 kB

Total: 1 package (1 new, 1 uninstall), Size of downloads: 0 kB Conflict: 1 block

coreutils vs. mktemp

These are the packages that would be merged, in reverse order:

Calculating dependencies... done! [nomerge     ] sys-apps/coreutils-6.11 [6.9-r1] USE="acl nls xattr (-selinux) -static -vanilla%" [blocks b    ]  sys-apps/mktemp (is blocking sys-apps/coreutils-6.11) [blocks b    ] >=sys-apps/coreutils-6.10 (is blocking sys-apps/mktemp-1.5) [uninstall   ]  sys-apps/mktemp-1.5 [ebuild    U ] sys-apps/coreutils-6.11 [6.9-r1] USE="acl nls xattr (-selinux) -static -vanilla%" 0 kB

Total: 1 package (1 upgrade, 1 uninstall), Size of downloads: 0 kB Conflict: 2 blocks

This entry was posted in Gentoo on May 9, 2008.

Relevant Gentoo Wiki pages

 * Useful portage tools
 * Binary package guide
 * Portage tips
 * /etc/portage configuration files
 * Repository format
 * ebuild
 * PMS (Package Manager Specification)
 * Overlay
 * Category:Portage

Related sections of the Gentoo Handbook

 * A Portage Introduction
 * USE flags
 * Portage Features
 * Files and Directories
 * Configuring through Variables
 * Mixing Software Branches
 * Additional Portage Tools

Other official docs

 * Compilation Optimization Guide
 * Gentoolkit
 * Portage-utils