Selected-packages set (Portage)

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Not to be confused with World_set_(Portage).

The selected-packages set contains the user-selected "world" packages that are listed in the /var/lib/portage/world file. The selected-packages set is colloquially referred to as the world file.

Managing the selected-packages set

Listing the selected-packages set

eix can be used to list the selected-packages set:

user $eix -c --selected-file

Emerge a package without adding it to the world file

In order to avoid problems in dependency resolution when updating the system, the /var/lib/portage/world file should contain as few dependencies as possible. So use the --oneshot (-1) option for emerging dependencies.

root #emerge --ask --oneshot <category/atom>

Checking the world file

The emaint command can be used to see if any problems exist in the world file:

user $/usr/sbin/emaint --check world

Emaint: check world        100% [============================================>]

Adding an atom without recompilation

To add a package to the selected-packages set without recompiling the package:

root #emerge --ask --noreplace <category/atom>

It will add the atom to the /var/lib/portage/world file without compiling it again.

Tips

Editing world file by hand

Though the emerge man page says that the world file can "safely" be edited by hand, Portage will aggressively rewrite that file. Comments or changes in order of packages will be lost and there will be no checking for typos.

The --deselect (-W) or --noreplace (-n) options to the emerge command may be used to add or remove packages from the world file.

External resources

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1075276.html - Cleaning the world file (wiki) - check the script.