Maybe this is a really minor bug in sylpheed-theme's ebuild, or a minor bug in portage. I just don't know how the portage system calculates what packages are installed and what aren't, when using emerge search. emerge search sylpheed-theme: * x11-themes/sylpheed-theme Latest version Available: 3 Latest version Installed: [ Not Installed ] Homepage: http://sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net/ Description: Theme packs for sylpheed and sylpheed-claws and sylpheed-claws-nc emerge sylpheed-theme -p: These are the packages that I would merge, in order. Calculating dependencies ...done! [ebuild R ] x11-themes/sylpheed-theme-3 to / I tried remeging sylpheed-theme, but it still showed as 'Not Installed'.
portage bug :/
You've probably found the small bug, but just in case - I did a little experiment and it seems that the problem is with short package versions ( '3' in this case ). I've tried to merge package xt ( xt-1.ebuild ), and the same bug showed. emerge is the first python program I ever saw, so forgive me if I'm totally off track... It seems that changing line 448 ( portage 2.0.28 ) from: if len(version) > 1: to if len(version) >= 1: did the trick.
OK, will be fixed in 2.0.30 final.