I have an up-to-date system with icu[60.2] and due to a rebuild stumbled upon the following: chain@richBOOK /tmp $ sudo emerge -a1 pyicu Passwort: These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies ... done! [ebuild U ~] dev-python/pyicu-2.0.2 [1.9.5] USE="{-test%}" PYTHON_TARGETS="-python3_6%" The following keyword changes are necessary to proceed: (see "package.accept_keywords" in the portage(5) man page for more details) # required by pyicu (argument) =dev-python/pyicu-2.0.2 ~amd64 Would you like to add these changes to your config files? [Yes/No] ^CInterrupted. -- I asked myself: WHAT?! -- chain@richBOOK /tmp $ sudo emerge =dev-python/pyicu-1.9.5 -a1 These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies ... done! [ebuild UD ] dev-libs/icu-58.2-r1 [60.2] [ebuild R ] dev-python/pyicu-1.9.5 !!! Multiple package instances within a single package slot have been pulled !!! into the dependency graph, resulting in a slot conflict: dev-libs/icu:0 (dev-libs/icu-58.2-r1:0/58.2::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge) pulled in by <dev-libs/icu-59 required by (dev-python/pyicu-1.9.5:0/0::gentoo, ebuild scheduled for merge) ^ ^^ (dev-libs/icu-60.2:0/60.2::gentoo, installed) pulled in by dev-libs/icu:0/60.2 required by (app-office/libreoffice-bin-5.4.4.2:0/0::gentoo, installed) ^^^^^^^ dev-libs/icu:0/60.2= required by (media-libs/libcdr-0.1.4:0/0::gentoo, installed) ^^^^^^^^ (and 13 more with the same problems) NOTE: Use the '--verbose-conflicts' option to display parents omitted above It may be possible to solve this problem by using package.mask to prevent one of those packages from being selected. However, it is also possible that conflicting dependencies exist such that they are impossible to satisfy simultaneously. If such a conflict exists in the dependencies of two different packages, then those packages can not be installed simultaneously. You may want to try a larger value of the --backtrack option, such as --backtrack=30, in order to see if that will solve this conflict automatically. For more information, see MASKED PACKAGES section in the emerge man page or refer to the Gentoo Handbook. -- well, that clears things up. So to sum it up, current icu does not work well with current pyicu? This really shouldn't be the case for a stable system, right? emerge --info follows: chain@richBOOK /tmp $ emerge --info Portage 2.3.19 (python 2.7.14-final-0, default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop/plasma, gcc-6.4.0, glibc-2.25-r9, 4.9.76-gentoo-r1-richBOOK x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-4.9.76-gentoo-r1-richBOOK-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7-2620M_CPU_@_2.70GHz-with-gentoo-2.4.1 KiB Mem: 8110180 total, 1604720 free KiB Swap: 16777212 total, 13428136 free Timestamp of repository gentoo: Wed, 07 Feb 2018 01:45:01 +0000 Head commit of repository gentoo: bd2c473b517ce0353a478d29a99ea777da519393 sh bash 4.4_p12 ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.29.1 p3) 2.29.1 app-shells/bash: 4.4_p12::gentoo dev-java/java-config: 2.2.0-r3::gentoo dev-lang/perl: 5.24.3::gentoo dev-lang/python: 2.7.14-r1::gentoo, 3.4.5-r1::gentoo, 3.5.4-r1::gentoo dev-util/cmake: 3.9.6::gentoo dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.29.2::gentoo sys-apps/baselayout: 2.4.1-r2::gentoo sys-apps/openrc: 0.34.11::gentoo sys-apps/sandbox: 2.12::gentoo sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13::gentoo, 2.69-r4::gentoo sys-devel/automake: 1.11.6-r2::gentoo, 1.15.1-r1::gentoo sys-devel/binutils: 2.29.1-r1::gentoo sys-devel/gcc: 6.4.0-r1::gentoo sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.8-r1::gentoo sys-devel/libtool: 2.4.6-r3::gentoo sys-devel/make: 4.2.1::gentoo sys-kernel/linux-headers: 4.13::gentoo (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.25-r9::gentoo Repositories: gentoo location: /usr/portage sync-type: rsync sync-uri: rsync://srv01.rpgfiction.net/gentoo-portage priority: -1000 sync-rsync-extra-opts: chain location: /home/chain/portage masters: gentoo priority: 0 tlp location: /var/lib/layman/tlp masters: gentoo priority: 50 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA AdobeFlash-11.x dlj-1.1 Intel-SDP PUEL TeamViewer cadsoft google-chrome RAR skype-4.0.0.7-copyright" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/php/apache2-php7.1/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php7.1/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php7.1/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs candy config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles merge-sync multilib-strict news parallel-fetch preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr" FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org" LANG="de_AT.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="de" MAKEOPTS="-j4" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/tmp" USE="X a52 aac acl acpi activities alsa amd64 avahi berkdb bluetooth bluray bzip2 cairo cdda cddb cdparanoia cdr cjk cli consolekit crypt css cups cxx dbus declarative dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode exif fam flac fortran gdbm gif glamor gpm iconv ieee1394 ipod ipv6 jack jpeg kde kipi kwallet lcms libnotify mad matroska minimal mng modplug modules mozilla mp3 mp4 mpeg mplayer mtp multilib musicbrainz ncurses netboot networkmanager nls nocd nptl nsplugin ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf phonon plasma png policykit ppds pulseaudio qml qt3support qt5 readline rss samba scanner sdl seccomp sid slang smp spell sse3 ssl ssse3 startup-notification svg taglib tcpd threads tiff truetype udev udisks unicode upower usb v4l v4l2 vaapi vcd vdpau vorbis widgets wifi wxwidgets x264 xattr xcb xcomposite xinerama xml xv xvid xvmc zeroconf zlib" ABI_X86="64" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump author" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock isync itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ublox ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics void wacom" KERNEL="linux" L10N="de" LCD_DEVICES="serialpos" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php5-6 php7-0" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres9_5" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_5" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_5" QEMU_SOFTMMU_TARGETS="arm i386 x86_64" QEMU_USER_TARGETS="arm i386 x86_64" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby22 ruby23" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel i965 nouveau nvidia" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: CC, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
I would suggest going straight for 2.0.2, 1.9.8 has got a few minor issues. Still have to wait for 9 days or so for that one to be eligible, though..
x86 stable
amd64 stable, closing