virtual/logger is satisfied by a lot of packages, however, nearly none of it actually installs the 'logger' application these days. I am not sure whether virtual/logger is *intended* to actually install the logger app, nor whether a logger app is state of the art. However, it's at least the first you install when you do a humble > > emerge -a logger > without actually getting it. To get the logger app back, I've tested this: - systemd does not (anymore?) - busybox[syslog] does not - metalog does not - sysklogd[logger] DOES! In case virtual/logger shall install 'logger', then the ebuild - should depend on: sysklogd[logger] - should not be satisfied by busybox, metalog, systemd - should eventually be satisfied by other apps I am not aware of Thanks.
The '/usr/bin/logger' binary on most systems is provided by sys-apps/util-linux[logger]. This USE flag is enabled by default. The virtual/logger package appears to be a list of syslog daemons that can receive messages at /dev/log.
Alright, thanks for explaining. Then take this just as a sidenote: When virtual/logger is not intended to install a logger app but provide syslog, and, on the other hand, multiple packages may clash on installing the same logger app via USE +logger (sysklogd, util-linux, ...), then it would probably be worth a second thinking of having - virtual/logger for the logger app (instead of providing syslog stuff) - virtual/syslog (new) for what virtual/logger does now. Just in case...
I don't see much point in creating a virtual for packages that install a 'logger' program. virtuals are typically used when other packages need to express a dependency. As far as I can tell, no packages in the Gentoo repo require that the 'logger' program be installed to work properly. The purpose of a virtual is not to allow the user to type "emerge logger" and have something useful happen. If you want to find a list of packages that provide some file, you may find the Portage Files List website useful. https://www.portagefilelist.de/ There is also a related package that allows you to search this database via the command line. app-portage/pfl
