DISTDIR

'''The DISTDIR variable defines the location where Portage will store the downloaded source code archives. It defaults to /usr/portage/distfiles'''

This location, which is also often referred to as the distfiles location, will host the source code archives of all software ever installed (or attempted to install) on the system. This location is not automatically cleaned up though, so you might want to use tools such as eclean-dist (part of ) to keep the storage used by this location under control.

Users can set this variable in.