Gentoo Handbook section 6.a code listing 6 instructs installers to update the Portage tree with the command "emerge --sync." This command fails by timing out if a firewall blocks rsync. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge --sync Actual Results: Emerge eventually times out because it cannot communicate with Portage mirrors. Expected Results: Software is behaving correctly by timing out. Documentation should explain this behavior. Related issues are mentioned in the FAQ, but users may not look there first (I didn't). Instead, they may try again with other Portage mirror sites. At the time this issue arises, the user has just chrooted into an environment with very limited troubleshooting tools. I recommend mentioning this issue, possibly referring to the FAQ, and suggesting these workarounds: 1. Allow outbound rsync access through the firewall (port 873) 2. Run the alternate command "emerge-webrsync --sync"
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=2&chap=1 The above link does mention the use of emerge-webrsync (specifically with reference to firewalls). Maybe a link to this would help?
Thanks, fixed in CVS. I haven't linked to the other section since it's just a single paragraph anyway.
