Please consider adding support for --exclude @<any set>
Alternatively an expansion script could be included in some form into app-portage/gentoolkit or app-portage/portage-utils Like for example: --- genexclude script --- #!/bin/bash [ "" = "$1" ] \ &&echo "$0 Error: Must have SET name as arg for '--exclude=cat/pkg'" 1>&2 \ &&exit 1 e="" while [ -f /etc/portage/sets/$1 ] ; do while read a rest ; do a="${a%%#*}" # empty comment line [ "" = "${a}" ] &&continue e="$e --exclude=$a" done </etc/portage/sets/$1 shift done echo -n "$e" --- end script Then this command works: emerge $(genexclude mysetname) -au @world