from make.conf: PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM="save custom" PORTAGE_ELOG_COMMAND="/portagelog.sh '${PACKAGE}' '${LOGFILE}'" PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES="*" the custom command is properly triggered, which is mostly nice, but ... only messages of loglevel INFO are kept in the elogs: # cat /var/log/portage/elog/dev-db:sqlite-3.7.17:20130727-013730.log INFO: setup Package: dev-db/sqlite-3.7.17 Repository: gentoo Maintainer: arfrever.fta@gmail.com proxy-maintainers USE: amd64 elibc_glibc extensions icu kernel_linux readline userland_GNU FEATURES: preserve-libs sandbox INFO: prepare Removing useless C++ checks ... INFO: install Removing unnecessary /usr/lib64/libsqlite3.la (no static archive) That makes logs quite useless and useless ...