It would help do compare diffs of emerge.log files. Currently each call logs the parameters (except for the ATOM) in an arbitry order : 1467311454: *** emerge --color=n --update --quiet-build=y --verbose-conflicts --nospinner --tree dev-python/smmap 1467311468: *** emerge --update --tree --nospinner --verbose-conflicts --color=n --quiet-build=y dev-libs/libmimedir 1467311487: *** emerge --tree --quiet-build=y --update --nospinner --verbose-conflicts --color=n x11-plugins/guifications 1467312480: *** emerge --nospinner --tree --verbose-conflicts --quiet-build=y --color=n --update net-libs/rpc2