--- portage.py	2005-01-20 17:24:41.000000000 +0000
+++ portage-mod.py	2005-01-21 20:30:16.412149736 +0000
@@ -2120,8 +2120,12 @@
 			mydigests[myfn] = {}
 		mydigests[myfn][mykey] = myhash
 		if "size" in mydigests[myfn]:
-			if mydigests[myfn]["size"] != mysize:
-				raise portage_exception.DigestException, "Conflicting sizes in digest: %(filename)s" % {"filename":myfilename}
+			try:
+				if mydigests[myfn]["size"] != mysize:
+					raise portage_exception.DigestException, "Conflicting sizes in digest: %(filename)s" % {"filename":myfilename}
+			except portage_exception.DigestException:
+				print "The digest sizes do not match.  Usually this is due to an invalid manifest.  Try an emerge sync to fetch a working manifest."
+				sys.exit( -5 )
 		else:
 			mydigests[myfn]["size"] = mysize
 	return mydigests