All of the net-wireless/ipw2200 ebuilds have been masked, but there is no explanation as to why in the ChangeLog. After some searching, it turns out that the ebuilds are being deprecated in favor of using the in-kernel modules (see bug #162058). It would be nice to include this fact in the Changelog.
# grep -C4 net-wireless/ipw2200 /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask # Christian Heim <phreak@gentoo.org> (19 Jan 2007) # Masked, pending removal in 30 days. Please stop using the external package # and use the in-kernel equivalents net-wireless/ipw2100 net-wireless/ipw2200
Ah, I was not aware that there were package mask comments in there. I use packages.gentoo.org to see what's new with packages, and that doesn't grep and display package.mask for me. But, now I'm aware of this file, so thank you for the info. :) But, I still think it would be wise to update the ChangeLog, since many non-devs (like me) won't know to look in some seemingly random file in the depths of portage.
You know, portage will read it for you... :) # emerge -pv net-wireless/ipw2200 These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies \ !!! All ebuilds that could satisfy "net-wireless/ipw2200" have been masked. !!! One of the following masked packages is required to complete your request: - net-wireless/ipw2200-1.1.3 (masked by: package.mask) # Christian Heim <phreak@gentoo.org> (19 Jan 2007) # Masked, pending removal in 30 days. Please stop using the external package # and use the in-kernel equivalents - net-wireless/ipw2200-1.2.0 (masked by: package.mask) - net-wireless/ipw2200-1.1.2-r1 (masked by: package.mask) For more information, see MASKED PACKAGES section in the emerge man page or refer to the Gentoo Handbook.
(In reply to comment #3) > You know, portage will read it for you... :) Huh, I didn't know that. I'm guessing that the message only shows if you specify the package rather than updating world: ====================================== # emerge -aDNtuv world These are the packages that would be merged, in reverse order: Calculating world dependencies | !!! Ebuilds for the following packages are either all !!! masked or don't exist: net-wireless/ipw2200 ... done! Total size of downloads: 0 kB Nothing to merge; would you like to auto-clean packages? [Yes/No] ====================================== Perhaps this is a bug in portage?
(In reply to comment #4) > Perhaps this is a bug in portage? Its the way it should be. Imagine if you are updating world and 20 packages are masked? You would get a full log. The right way to do it is checking the package that has been reported as masked with the --pretend option.
