Each >=sys-libs/db-4.2*.ebuild applies two java-related patches, which change some autoconf-input (m4-files), but autoconf is not called anywhere, so they do not have any effect: files/*-jni-check-prefix-first.patch files/*-listen-to-java-options.patch In ChangeLog they are first mentioned in 2006: 25 Jul 2006; Joshua Nichols <nichoj@gentoo.org> +files/db-4.2-jni-check-prefix-first.patch, +files/db-4.2-listen-to-java-options.patch, +files/db-4.3-jni-check-prefix-first.patch, +files/db-4.3-listen-to-java-options.patch, +db-4.2.52_p4-r2.ebuild, +db-4.3.29-r2.ebuild: Revision bumps to support new Java system. Although they are not a problem itself (except wasting space and maintenance-time), they confused me somehow while porting to aix (in prefix), where I need to do (sort of) eautoreconf.
All 4.x slots are now fixed to respin the build system properly, to take into account the java patches and the SONAME fix from bug #182972. It should also be a lot easier for you to handle it in Prefix now (barring one minor annoying issue in 4.2 where you need .jnilib for Darin).
