Since updating sys-apps/portage from 2.3.19 to 2.3.24, the portage tree can no longer be synced in a timely fashion. The syncing process hangs at: INFO:root:Verifying /usr/portage... The use of gemato adds around 15 minutes to the sync process on a modern PC. Downgrading to 2.3.19 seems to be the only solution at this stage.
You can disable it with a setting like this in /etc/portage/repos.conf: [gentoo] sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest = no It can also be disabled at build time with a setting like this in /etc/portage/package.use: sys-apps/portage -rsync-verify
This was noted in the news item. This is a technical limitation, it can't be made faster than your filesystem. That said, you're probably using a horribly bad filesystem, and I would be surprised if Portage wouldn't be extremely slow on it anyway.
Awesome thanks guys and apologies for a false alarm, seems it's slow by design. I'm using ext4, is that no good anymore? Hard drives aren't solid state so that might be the problem: # hdparm -tT /dev/sda2 /dev/sda2: Timing cached reads: 8044 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4023.85 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 340 MB in 3.00 seconds = 113.27 MB/sec Anyway, disabled it now :)
/dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 1558 MB in 2.00 seconds = 778.87 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 184 MB in 3.02 seconds = 60.90 MB/sec Since the ebuild repository uses a lot of small files, it is subject to fragmentation a lot. Using a completely separate filesystem for it reduces the performance problems. Preferably use a filesystem better suited for small files such as btrfs or reiserfs (or possibly overlayfs on top of squashfs).
