Some questions about updating portage in Gentoo

vharishankar · 03-11-2005, 09:23 PM

How do I update Portage in Gentoo?

I just want to know whether I can just do an emerge --update with portage.

Will this break anything? Just a question. I have beautifully set up everything to work in Gentoo and I don't want to disturb it

beaucoup · 03-11-2005, 11:35 PM

emerge --sync should do what you want. If you've done any tinkering inside the /usr/portage directory in order to tweak things, it may get clobbered, but most of us havn't had any need to do that.

emerge --update is equivalent to apt-get --upgrade, which will attempt to upgrade every package on your system to the latest version, which probably isn't what you want. (Set aside at least 24 hours before your first --update...it takes a while).

Check the gentoo forums for a better-informed answer

http://forums.gentoo.org

vharishankar · 03-11-2005, 11:41 PM

Not the whole system. Just portage.

beaucoup · 03-11-2005, 11:44 PM

Just the portage system (ie, the 'emerge' tool), not the software tree? That's easy

emerge portage

vharishankar · 03-12-2005, 12:46 AM

Should it not be emerge --update portage?

beaucoup · 03-13-2005, 01:26 PM

No, just "emerge portage". It's implied that you want the latest version. If you're unsure, you can put --ask before it and it will confirm its actions with you before doing anything (this is generally a good idea).

The --update option is really only used when you want to upgrade your entire system all at once.

If you're new to Gentoo and portage, you may want to read its fairly concise and helpful man page, and the introduction in the Gentoo handbook:

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handboo...?part=2&chap=1

vharishankar · 03-13-2005, 08:32 PM

Before you posted I already did emerge --update portage. So far nothing seems to have broken but after this I get a warning about 8 configuration files not being updated at the end of each emerge after that.

Do you think anything has gone wrong because I used the --update switch? I used the --update switch for updating portage, because the emerge man page mentioned this somewhere.

I haven't noticed any problems so far, but do these warnings mean anything?

I'll try to get you the exact error message later.

beaucoup · 03-13-2005, 08:54 PM

From the emerge man page:

Quote:

--update (-u)
Updates packages to the best version available, which may not always be the highest version number due to masking for testing and development. This will also update direct dependencies which may not be what you want. In general, use this option only in combination with the world or system target.

Having done an "emerge --update packagename" already is no big deal; it may have upgraded a few dependencies too.

The messages about configuration files being out of date are pretty routine; Portage is waiting for you to run the "etc-update" command to sync newly downloaded configuration files with already existing ones. It makes you do this yourself so it doesn't accidentally clobber any of your settings.

vharishankar · 03-13-2005, 10:26 PM

So should I run etc-update?

I might have changed one or two of the config files (esp. for network, fstab and a few others).

Is it safe to run etc-update?

slackie1000 · 03-14-2005, 07:55 AM

hi there,

you can check if this is necessary running

Code:

ls -lrta /etc/._*

gentoo portage won't overwrite any files in your /etc directory.
will create a the new one with the name

Code:

._blah,blah

that you can move by yourself or through

Code:

etc-update

if you don't need any personal/special configuration you can make it by hand.
this is gentoo, all about choices

regards

slackie1000

vharishankar · 03-14-2005, 08:10 AM

Ok, I'll just leave it alone for now as there seems to be no problem (except that warning message given by portage).

In general, I don't see why I should keep changing the config files for every new upgrade since the config settings should remain the same as before.

Have I got it right? Sorry if I ask an obvious question.

slackie1000 · 03-14-2005, 08:15 AM

hi there,

that is the tricky thing. i, personally, run a differ script to see what the new file brings. if it is something that i consider not important i just delete the file. otherwise i overwrite the old one.
the important thing, imho, is give it a look. sometimes directories are changed and other weird things. you have nothing to fear about taking a look. save your old files and check if the new one brings something new.

regards

slackie1000

vharishankar · 03-14-2005, 08:26 AM

Ok thanks. I'll see which files were changed by me in the beginning.

In apt-get (dpkg system) in Debian the update script automatically brings up a ncurses dialog window to ask for any configuration changes (if needed).