I installed net-misc/openntpd-3.6_p1. After this, I installed net-misc/ntp-4.2.0-r2. This worked just fine. Then I unmerged both net-misc/openntpd-3.6_p1 and net-misc/ntp-4.2.0-r2. Next, I merged net-misc/ntp-4.2.0-r2 and *after* this, I do "emerge net-misc/openntpd". I get: [10:25:24 vz6tml@exp01:/var] $ sudo emerge -vat net-misc/openntpd Password: These are the packages that I would merge, in reverse order: Calculating dependencies ...done! [blocks B ] net-misc/ntp (from pkg net-misc/openntpd-3.6_p1) [ebuild N ] net-misc/openntpd-3.6_p1 0 kB Total size of downloads: 0 kB !!! Error: The above package list contains packages which cannot be installed !!! on the same system. Now, when net-misc/ntp blocks the installation of net-misc/openntpd, I would expect the presence of net-misc/openntpd to block the installation of net-misc/ntp. IOW: Blocks should *always* be bidirectional. If a blocks b, it should *always* be, that b blocks a. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: [10:50:20 vz6tml@exp01:/var] $ emerge info Portage 2.0.51-r2 (default-x86-2004.2, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.4.20041021-r0, 2.6.8.1-ck9 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.8.1-ck9 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.6.5 ccache version 2.3 [enabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r5 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.15.92.0.2-r1 Headers: sys-kernel/linux26-headers-2.6.8.1-r1 Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.5.2-r5 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -funroll-loops" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache collision-protect distlocks sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X aalib acl acpi adns alsa apache2 apm arts artswrappersuid artworkextra audiofile avi bcmath bitmap-fonts bzlib cairo crypt cscope cups curl curlwrappers directfb divx4linux djbfft dvd encode esd ethereal evo exif f77 fam fbcon flac foomaticdb ftp gd gdbm gif gimpprint gnome gnutls gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 hal iconv imagemagick imap imlib imlib2 immqt-bc inifile ithreads java javascript jbig jikes jpeg jpeg2k kde kerberos ldap libedit libg++ libwww lzw-tiff mad maildir mailwrapper matroska mbox mmap mmx mng motif mozcalendar mozilla moznoirc mpeg ncurses nls noantlr nobcel nobeanutils nobsh nocommonslogging nocommonsnet nodrm nojdepend nojoystick nojsch nojython nolog4j nooro noregexp norhino noxalan noxerces nptl offensive oggvorbis opengl oss pam parse-clocks pcntl pcre pdflib perl pic pie png posix ppds pwdb python qt quicktime quotes readline real recode samba sasl sdl shared slang sndfile sockets spell sse ssl svg sysvipc tcltk tcpd theora tiff truetype unicode usb videos vim-with-x wmf x86 xchattext xfs xml xml2 xmms xscreensaver xv xvid zlib linguas_de"
usually portage is smarter about one-way blockers ... i'll fix it
USE=openntpd emerge ntp now you can have your cake and eat it too
