I'd like to upgrade dev-db/mariadb to the latest available dev-db/mariadb-10.3.5_rc (running ~amd64) but virtual/libmysqlclient-18 requires the client-libs use flag to be enabled for dev-db/mariadb (as well as other MySQL-compatible servers) - yet, client-libs is masked in base/package.use.mask: # Mask client-libs USE to force users to install alternative standard pacakges >=dev-db/mariadb-10.2.13 client-libs >=dev-db/mysql-5.7 client-libs >=dev-db/percona-server-5.7 client-libs I read in bug #649918 that virtual/libmysqlclient is going away but since other ebuilds currently depend on it I thought I'd report the problem. Thanks!
This should be forcing the installation of dev-db/mysql-connector-c which will satisfy virtual/libmysqlclient. The server ebuilds which have client-libs will force this package to be installed as well. If you have a conflict, it is likely a USE conflict between virtual/libmysqlclient and dev-db/mysql-connector-c.