Bug 460414 – emerge <pkg> doesn't error out if <pkg> is ambiguous but one of the packages is already installed and reinstalls that one

• Status: CONFIRMED
• Product: Portage Development

[Description Jan Matějka (RETIRED) 2013-03-05 15:58:13 UTC]

emerge <pkg> doesn't error out if <pkg> is ambiguous but one of the packages is already installed and reinstalls that one

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. emerge mpc # assuming, you have dev-libs/mpc as system package and don't have media-sound/mpc
Actual Results:  
dev-libs/mpc is reinstalled

Expected Results:  
error out that mpc is ambiguous and require user to specify category/package

[Comment 1 Zac Medico 2013-03-05 16:19:06 UTC]

(In reply to comment #0)
> Actual Results:  
> dev-libs/mpc is reinstalled

This is intended to be a convenience for the user. Often, they are only interested in the package that's already installed.

> Expected Results:  
> error out that mpc is ambiguous and require user to specify category/package

We can add an option to control this behavior, which you'll be able to add to EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS in order to make it your default.

[Comment 2 Jan Matějka (RETIRED) 2013-03-05 16:26:32 UTC]

I find this behaviour very confusing and unwise. At least configuration option would be nice.

[Comment 3 Jan Matějka (RETIRED) 2013-03-06 09:18:42 UTC]

I'd like to note, that I'd like this option to make emerge exit(1) (or so) every time when ambiguous package name is specified, regardless of the action that the emerge was invoked for (eg. merge or unmerge)