1. The messages Portage relays to users could use a little cleaning up and clarifying... Example: blocke@slug portage $ emerge foo !!! to be able to perform the requested action, emerge must be run by root. should be something like: blocke@slug portage $ emerge foo emerge: Requested action requires root privileges Another example: when something is package.masked'd out, the error message should say its package.mask'd and which package.mask or profile blocks it... (is this possible without major rewriting?) 2. We currently add things to the world profile and virtuals through emerge but provide no way to view or remove entries without editing the files directly. I recommend adding the following: For virtuals: emerge --virtual add cat/foo (formerly 'inject') emerge --virtual add cat/foo what/satisfysit emerge --virtual remove cat/foo emerge --virtual list The virtual system could also provide a way for users to block the installation of a particular package if the user prefers to have their own version installed. For world profile: emerge --world add cat/foo emerge --world add =x11-misc/foo-1.2.3 (easy way to pin a version) emerge --world remove cat/foo emerge --world list
Message clean-ups are happening. World and virtual tweakage not yet added.
It would have happened by now if the intention was there. Perhaps something to note for portage-ng, in which case you should check it out: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/portage/
