/etc/portage/sets

/etc/portage/sets is an optional directory that is used to create user defined package sets. For each file in /etc/portage/sets, a package set is created, defining a one-to-many relationship between a set name and an arbitrary group of package atoms. User-defined set names correspond to the name of the file. Each file should contain a list of package atoms and nested package sets, one per line. You can see the full list of sets that exist at any time with

user $emerge --list-sets

Example

For the sake of example, say Larry wanted to run live ebuilds for GPU drivers, and desired an easy shorthand for rebuilding them on demand. He could define the following set:

FILE /etc/portage/sets/gpu-stack

x11-libs/libdrm
media-libs/mesa
x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati
x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel

Now, all that is needed to trigger a rebuild of all of them at once is:

root #emerge --ask @gpu-stack

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
Calculating dependencies \
...done!
[ebuild   R   #] x11-libs/libdrm-9999
[ebuild   R   #] x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel-9999
[ebuild   R   #] x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-9999
[ebuild   R   ~] media-libs/mesa-9999

Would you like to merge these packages? [Yes/No]

Note
Selecting "Yes" here will add the set to the /var/lib/portage/world_sets file. Use --oneshot to avoid this.

To remove a user defined set from world_sets, use the --deselect option to emerge, then clean up orphaned dependencies:

root #emerge --deselect @gpu-stack

root #emerge --ask --depclean

Warning
Do not use the --depclean or --unmerge options to remove the set itself. Doing so may remove critical packages consumed by other package sets.

Comments can be added into set files and can be used for organization, making multi-purpose set files a possibility. System administrators can add desires packages into one big file, or create multiple set files per category or concept for more granularity. Set files can easily integrate into configuration management systems.

FILE /etc/portage/sets/custom_package_set

# file compression utilities
app-arch/p7zip
app-arch/unrar

# top style utilities
sys-process/iotop
sys-process/lsof

# mail reader
mail-client/neomutt

To include the list of packages within the custom @custom_package_set set, add the name of the set to the /var/lib/portage/world_sets file:

root #echo "@custom_package_set" >> /var/lib/portage/world_sets

Or simply emerge the set using the set name:

root #emerge -av @custom_package_set

See also

• Package sets — describes package sets in high detail and includes a list of all typically available sets on a Gentoo system.
• System set (Portage) — contains the software packages required for a standard Gentoo Linux installation to run properly.
• World set (Portage) — encompasses the system set, the selected set, and the @profile set.

External resources

For more detailed information about package sets, read the emerge manpage and search for "set" (/^\s*set).