This is a patch against catalyst 1.0.8.1 which adds a portage_confdir setting to the stage specfiles. It should be a directory which, if given, will be copied inside the stage as /etc/portage immediately after the /etc/make.conf link is configured. This feature was requested in bug #51580 but that bug was closed with the decision that supporting portdir_overlay in the snapshot target was all that is needed. I'm submitting this patch anyway as I don't understand how portdir_overlay solves the /etc/portage problem.
Created attachment 34165 [details, diff] portage_confdir patch against generic_stage_target.py
fixed in cvs, thanks