It doesn't seem like this bug has been _really_ fixed for some years. http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10696 Optionally, portage should be enabled to autoclean old distfiles, which are no longer needed. This would be a great feature.
A way which this can be done already is by making use of the /etc/portage/bashrc option. This allows us to hook into misc ebuild phases and do fun things such as removing files that portage no longer needs. (ie <=256M USB sticks) An example of this can be seen at http://dev.gentoo.org/~solar/portage_misc/bashrc I control it via a FEATURES="distclean"
Oh great, but why not include officially in portage with optional switch in make.conf?
I read your script but it not exactly what I expected. I'd like it only to remove the distfiles of old packages that are no longer installed on my system. (Or did I misunderstand your script?)
this appears to be a duplicate of bug 33877, unless i am mistaken/
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 33877 ***