--- /tmp/bintree.py	2013-11-05 04:12:41.138995391 -0500
+++ /usr/lib/portage/pym/portage/dbapi/bintree.py	2013-11-11 19:09:06.084788754 -0500
@@ -939,10 +939,41 @@
 							if not fcmd:
 								raise EnvironmentError("FETCHCOMMAND is unset")
 
-						fd, tmp_filename = tempfile.mkstemp()
-						tmp_dirname, tmp_basename = os.path.split(tmp_filename)
-						os.close(fd)
+						# old method completely breaks timestamp caching
+						# make a secure archive copy of our file (preserves timestamps)
+						# cd to tempdir so wget analyses the unqualified basename
+						# fetch file
+						# cd back
+						
+						tmp_dirname = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+						fetch_cwd = os.getcwd()
+						os.chdir(tmp_dirname)
+						tmp_basename = os.path.basename(pkgindex_file)
 
+						# no race condition since the target is atomically unlinked if exists
+						fd_tmpfile,tmp_filename = tempfile.mkstemp(dir=tmp_dirname)
+						os.rename(tmp_filename, tmp_basename)
+						tmp_stat_original = None
+
+						if os.path.exists(pkgindex_file):
+							f_tmpfile = os.fdopen(fd_tmpfile, 'wb')
+						
+							# copy original file
+							f_pkgindex_file = open(pkgindex_file, 'rb')
+							f_tmpfile.write(f_pkgindex_file.read())
+							f_tmpfile.close()
+							f_pkgindex_file.close()
+
+							# preserve timestamps
+							os.utime(tmp_basename, (int(local_timestamp), int(local_timestamp)))
+							tmp_stat_original = os.stat(tmp_basename)
+						
+						else:
+							_f = os.path.exists('Packages')
+							os.close(fd_tmpfile)
+
+						fcmd = fcmd.replace('-O "${DISTDIR}/${FILE}"', '-N')
+						
 						fcmd_vars = {
 							"DISTDIR": tmp_dirname,
 							"FILE": tmp_basename,
@@ -957,9 +988,21 @@
 
 						success = portage.getbinpkg.file_get(
 							fcmd=fcmd, fcmd_vars=fcmd_vars)
+
+						if tmp_stat_original and tmp_stat_original.st_ctime == os.stat(os.path.join(tmp_dirname, tmp_basename)).st_ctime:
+							# set to the tmpdir so both are deleted
+							tmp_filename = tmp_dirname
+							os.chdir(fetch_cwd)
+							raise UseCachedCopyOfRemoteIndex()
+						
 						if not success:
+							os.chdir(fetch_cwd)
 							raise EnvironmentError("%s failed" % (setting,))
-						f = open(tmp_filename, 'rb')
+
+						f = open(tmp_basename, 'rb')
+						# set to the tmpdir so both are deleted
+						tmp_filename = tmp_dirname
+						os.chdir(fetch_cwd)
 
 				f_dec = codecs.iterdecode(f,
 					_encodings['repo.content'], errors='replace')