Minimal systems can be assembled entirely from binary packages, eliminating the need for many of the packages that are required in a system that is capable of building packages. In order to create profiles for minimal systems like these, it would be useful to be able to use -* in the "packages" files, in order to discard unneeded packages from parent profiles. For example, gentoo's "base" profile contains many settings that are essential for all profiles, but without support for -* in the "packages" file, it is unnecessarily difficult for minimal profile that inherits it to negate all of the atoms found in the base "packages" file.
Patch posted for review: https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage-dev/message/b4e22897149bb722767ab6767a31e6aa https://github.com/gentoo/portage/pull/125
This is in the master branch: https://gitweb.gentoo.org/proj/portage.git/commit/?id=f4b0714010f1237280fd48dcb65989679917d20a
Fixed in portage-2.3.5.
Documentation patch posted: https://archives.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage-dev/message/d759ee92123407f1946b283498469da1 https://github.com/gentoo/portage/pull/166
Documentation is in the master branch: https://gitweb.gentoo.org/proj/portage.git/commit/?id=90a15aad608c87a7a03dade22592fa95a0ac4fbd
