Bug 29354

Summary:	Why package.mask
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Georg Müller <georgmueller>
Component:	[OLD] Core system	Assignee:	Gentoo Linux bug wranglers <bug-wranglers>
Status:	RESOLVED WONTFIX
Severity:	normal
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Georg Müller 2003-09-22 11:23:46 UTC

with ~arch - I don't see the reason for a package.mask.

Why not add some new tags like ~x86a for alphas, ~x86b for beta and ~x86 for
testing as is...

Comment 1 Marius Mauch (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2003-09-22 14:07:55 UTC

because it's easier to block something in package.mask (edit one file instead of possibly a dozen ebuilds). Adding new tags isn't that easy as it requires code changes in portage and these changes have to be on everyones computer or they'll get errors about invalid KEYWORDS.
And as you can undo maskings in package.mask with package.unmask in /etc/portage there is no reason to drop package.mask.