Handbook:Parts/Portage/CustomTree

Parts Handbook
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Choosing the media
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The stage file
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Configuring the system
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Working with Gentoo
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Working with Portage
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Mixing software branches
Additional tools
Custom package repository
Advanced features
OpenRC network configuration
Getting started
Advanced configuration
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Adding functionality
Dynamic management

Using a subset of the Gentoo repository

Excluding packages and categories

It is possible to selectively update certain categories/packages and ignore the other categories/packages. This can be achieved by having rsync exclude categories/packages during the emerge --sync step.

Warning
In order for this method to work, manifest verification must be disabled. This will reduce the security of the repo. To disable the verification, either disable the rsync-verify USE flag on the sys-apps/portage package or set sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest=no (see man 5 portage) in the repos.conf entry of the Gentoo ebuild repository.

Define the name of the file that contains the exclude patterns in the PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS variable in /etc/portage/make.conf:

FILE /etc/portage/make.confDefining the exclude file

PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS="--exclude-from=/etc/portage/rsync_excludes"

FILE /etc/portage/rsync_excludesExcluding all games

games-*/*

Warning
Excluding parts of ebuild repositories, especially the Gentoo ebuild repo, may lead to dependency issues! New, allowed packages might depend on new but excluded packages. Exclusions are unsupportable, proceed with this risk in mind.

Adding unofficial ebuilds

Defining a custom ebuild repository

It is possible to instruct Portage to use ebuilds that are not officially available through the Gentoo ebuild repository. In order to do so, create a new directory (for instance /var/db/repos/localrepo) in which to store the 3rd party ebuilds. This new repository will require the same directory structure as the official Gentoo repository.

root #mkdir -p /var/db/repos/localrepo/{metadata,profiles}

root #chown -R portage:portage /var/db/repos/localrepo

Next, pick a sensible name for the repository. The next example uses "localrepo" as the name:

root #echo 'localrepo' > /var/db/repos/localrepo/profiles/repo_name

Tell Portage that the repository master is the main Gentoo ebuild repo, and that the local repository should not be automatically synchronized (as it is not backed by an external source such as an rsync server, git mirror, or other repository type):

FILE /var/db/repos/localrepo/metadata/layout.conf

masters = gentoo
auto-sync = false

Finally, enable the repository on the local system by creating a repository configuration file inside /etc/portage/repos.conf. This will inform Portage of where the custom local repository can be found:

FILE /etc/portage/repos.conf/localrepo.conf

[localrepo]
location = /var/db/repos/localrepo

Working with several overlays

For the power users who develop on several overlays, test packages before they hit the Gentoo repository or just want to use unofficial ebuilds from various sources, the app-portage/layman package brings layman, a tool to help users keep the overlay repositories up to date.

Alternatively, install app-eselect/eselect-repository to utilize the native synchronization in Portage. See also Eselect/Repository

eselect-repository

Adding repositories is simple with the eselect module (available via app-eselect/eselect-repository):

For instance, to enable the hardened-development overlay:

root #eselect repository enable hardened-development

Updating of overlays added with this methods happens naturally with:

root #emerge --sync

Layman

First install and configure layman as shown in the Overlays User Guide, and add the desired repositories with layman -a.

For instance, to enable the hardened-development overlay:

root #layman -a hardened-development

Regardless of how many repositories are used through layman, all the repositories can be updated with the following command:

root #layman -S

For more information on working with overlays, please read man layman and the previously linked layman/overlay users' guide.

Non-Portage maintained software

Using Portage with self-maintained software

Sometimes users want to configure, install and maintain software individually without having Portage automate the process, even though Portage can provide the software titles. Known cases are kernel sources and Nvidia drivers. It is possible to configure Portage so it knows that a certain package is manually installed on the system (and thus take this information into account when calculating dependencies). This process is called injecting and is supported by Portage through the /etc/portage/profile/package.provided file.

For instance, to inform Portage about gentoo-sources-6.6.21 which has been installed manually, add the following line to /etc/portage/profile/package.provided:

FILE /etc/portage/profile/package.providedMarking gentoo-sources-6.6.21 as manually installed

sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-6.6.21

Note
This is a file that uses versions without an = operator.

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