After an upgrade to sys-apps/portage-2.1.11.50 the emerge --sync command does no longer work. Example: $ emerge --debug --sync >>> Starting rsync with rsync://[2a01:90:200:10::1a]/gentoo-portage... >>> Checking server timestamp ... Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 51, in <module> retval = emerge_main() File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/_emerge/main.py", line 1044, in emerge_main gc_locals=locals().clear) File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/_emerge/actions.py", line 3806, in run_action return action_sync(settings, trees, mtimedb, myopts, myaction) File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/_emerge/actions.py", line 2394, in action_sync mycommand, returnpid=True, **spawn_kwargs)) TypeError: spawn() keywords must be strings Downgrading to sys-apps/portage-2.1.11.31 fixes the problem. Problem occurs on several different but basically similar machines. Reproducible: Always emerge --info: Portage 2.1.11.50 (default/linux/x86/10.0, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.11.2-r3, 2.6.35.14 i686) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.35.14-i686-Intel-R-_Xeon-R-_CPU_L5506_@_2.13GHz-with-gentoo-1.12.13 KiB Mem: 4150448 total, 281136 free KiB Swap: 4194300 total, 4188584 free Timestamp of tree: Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:00:01 +0000 ld GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.18 app-shells/bash: 4.2_p37 dev-lang/python: 2.6.4-r1 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.9 dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.27.1 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.13 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.5 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.68 sys-devel/automake: 1.10.2, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3 sys-devel/gcc: 4.3.4 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.4-r1 sys-devel/make: 3.82-r4 sys-kernel/linux-headers: 2.6.27-r2 (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.11.2-r3 Repositories: gentoo ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe -mno-tls-direct-seg-refs" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe -mno-tls-direct-seg-refs" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FCFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs buildpkg config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles merge-sync news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch" FFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/usr/src/portage" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="acl berkdb bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cxx dri fortran gdbm gpm iconv ipv6 modules mudflap ncurses nls nptl openmp pae pam pcre readline session ssl tcpd unicode x86 zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_2" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18 ruby19" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev glint intel mach64 mga nouveau nv r128 radeon savage sis tdfx trident vesa via vmware dummy v4l" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
I erronously included --debug while it was not actually run. With the flag really specified it does: # emerge --debug --sync myaction sync myopts {'--debug': True} >>> Starting rsync with rsync://[2001:470:ea4a:1:225:90ff:fe02:16e5]/gentoo-portage... >>> Checking server timestamp ... [u'/usr/bin/rsync', u'--recursive', u'--links', u'--safe-links', u'--perms', u'--times', u'--compress', u'--force', u'--whole-file', u'--delete', u'--stats', u'--human-readable', u'--timeout=180', u'--exclude=/distfiles', u'--exclude=/local', u'--exclude=/packages', u'--verbose', u'--checksum'] Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 51, in <module> retval = emerge_main() File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/_emerge/main.py", line 1044, in emerge_main gc_locals=locals().clear) File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/_emerge/actions.py", line 3806, in run_action return action_sync(settings, trees, mtimedb, myopts, myaction) File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/_emerge/actions.py", line 2394, in action_sync mycommand, returnpid=True, **spawn_kwargs)) TypeError: spawn() keywords must be strings
As a workaround, you can enable python3 like this: mkdir -p /etc/portage echo "sys-apps/portage python3" >> /etc/portage/package.use emerge -1 portage
Or, just update to >=python-2.6.5: emerge -1 python:2.7
I've updated the current ebuilds to require >=python-2.6.5, and added compatibility code for the next release: http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/portage.git;a=commit;h=02d4bc55e96e01f4e7c5aeea3e52cdd28d69c120
This is fixed in 2.1.11.51 and 2.2.0_alpha162.
