# emerge --buildpkgonly -va net-mail/qmailadmin These are the packages that would be built, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [ebuild N ] net-mail/autorespond-2.0.4 0 kB [ebuild N ] mail-mta/netqmail-1.06-r2 USE="ssl -authcram -gencertdaily -highvolume -qmail-spp -vanilla" 0 kB [ebuild N ] virtual/qmail-1.03 0 kB [ebuild N ] net-mail/vpopmail-5.4.33 USE="-clearpasswd -ipalias -maildrop -mysql -spamassassin" 0 kB [ebuild N ~] net-mail/qmailadmin-1.2.16 USE="-maildrop -vhosts" 380 kB Total: 5 packages (5 new), Size of downloads: 380 kB Would you like to merge these packages? [Yes/No] Yes <=== interactive !!! --buildpkgonly requires all dependencies to be merged. !!! Cannot merge requested packages. Merge deps and try again. ^=== It fails after going interactive. I would expect it to fail before asking this (meaningless) question
This is fixed in git: http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/portage.git;a=commit;h=debf30ee98b29894bd913b3ec691662143c0f30e
This is fixed in 2.1.12.3 and 2.2.0_alpha178.