when having an i.e SVN repo in e.g. /etc/portage/repos.conf/local_overlay.conf: [local_overlay] location = /usr/local/portage auto-sync = yes sync-type = svn sync-uri = https://svn.somehost.tld/overlay and you call "emerge -q --sync", you'll get: host ~ # emerge -q --sync Updating '.': At revision 91. host ~ # the "svn update" command of the sync module should inherit the wanted verbosity level of the calling emerge, i.e: svn [-q|--quiet] update Reproducible: Always