Bugzilla Bug 55996

I have my setting at stable but there are a few unstable programs I install.

emerge "USE=~X86" foo

but when I an update it will blindly want to downgrade foo

so you edit /etc/portage/package.keywords 
of course I knew that, no I didn't, I read a note in package.mask

now emerge is happy

um, some automation with something like

first idea 
(-r is not taken)
emerge -remember =foo-0.5

saves settings to /etc/portage/package.keywords
checks if necessary, that is does it need to be saved in the first place
checks for package.mask and flashes warning
     

variation:

emerge -remember "USE=bar" =foo-0.5
   same as above but also saves the USE variable


second idea
(or -nomask)
emerge -override =foo-0.5
emerge -override foo

ignores/overides mask settings
used to indicate an install and calls the above to remember the settings
package.mask would ask for y/n confirmation




third idea
(or -available)
emerge -list foo

lists ALL version in current portage
The additions of [stable|unstable] to the emerge -s foo output would be required.



note that I have foo1, foo2, foo3
foo1 is the lastest stable
foo2 is officially stable but unstable in gentoo. It is the one I want
foo3 is the lastest unstable, the *unstable* development version
thus I need a way to explictly choose versions, '=' support will do


the hoops I have to jump through to install foo2. It's always has to be the latest version, either the lastest stable or latest unstable and anything in between is a pain to install.

I'm not a fan of enabling random-joe to merge packages that
are outside of normal areas if they can't figure out how to
merge them now. It saves our time (by eliminating bug reports)
and requires users to learn so that can get what they want.

Manual steps help shake the bugs and hidden issues loose.

The listing of all available is doable. Just have to get it
coded.

There's a strict rule for emerge that it won't touch user configuration files.