eix-sync works well with portage uid/gid and is more secure in that way. Also, I had to move eix.{,previous} into /var/cache/edb and set the g+rws to /var/cache/edb, /usr/portage, /etc/portage. The directories belong to the portage user/group. eix--sync can be run with fcron from a shell script. Also, runas(portage) won't work because of portage 'shell' /bin/false declared in /etc/passwd. To avoid the issue, the script calls 'setuidgid portage eix--sync' instead. IMO, eix-sync RootTest() should not be called unconditionally. The option -e isn't necessary with the setting described above. Thx Reproducible: Always
As long as the mention permissions of the directories are not the default settings after installation, it would be wrong to let eix-sync choose a different default for RootTest: The non-experienced users would run into troubles without the tests. When you change the directory defaults, you can choose the -e default as well: For instance, using printf '%s\n' -e >>/etc/eix-sync.conf