In all current ebuilds, pkg_postinst() contains this: RDEPEND="${DEPEND} # ... !sys-apps/hwids[udev]" # ... pkg_postinst() { # ... if has_version 'sys-apps/hwids[udev]'; then udevadm hwdb --update --root="${ROOT}" # ... fi # ... } This looks inconsistent, everything in this if ... fi block should either be unconditionally executed (as for sys-apps/systemd-utils), or not present at all, depending on whether upstream *.hwdb files are installed or not.