after clean unpack: betelgeuse@pena /var/tmp/portage/dev-java/jss-4.2 $ ls -l total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 portage root 80 2007-01-31 00:04 distdir/ drwxrwxr-x 2 portage portage 48 2007-01-31 00:04 homedir/ drwxrwxr-x 3 portage portage 200 2007-01-31 00:04 temp/ drwxr-xr-x 3 portage portage 72 2007-01-31 00:04 work/ after ebuild <ebuild> test: betelgeuse@pena /var/tmp/portage/dev-java/jss-4.2 $ ls -l total 0 drwxr-xr-x 2 portage root 80 2007-01-31 00:05 distdir/ drwxrwxr-x 2 portage portage 48 2007-01-31 00:05 homedir/ drwxrwxr-x 3 portage portage 200 2007-01-31 00:04 temp/ drwx------ 3 portage portage 72 2007-01-31 00:04 work/ Portage 2.1.2-r5 (default-linux/x86/2006.1/desktop, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.5-r0, 2.6.19-gentoo-r5 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.19-gentoo-r5 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.13.0_alpha12 Timestamp of tree: Unknown distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.4 [enabled] dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.0.31-r3 dev-lang/python: 2.4.4, 2.5-r1 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r6 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.18.1 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.61 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10 sys-devel/binutils: 2.17 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.14 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.22 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.19.2-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=nocona -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/gconf /etc/java-config/vms/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/splash /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=nocona -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/var/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache collision-protect cvs distlocks fixpackages java-strict parallel-fetch sandbox sfperms sign strict userpriv usersandbox verify-rdepend" GENTOO_MIRRORS=" http://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo http://lame.lut.fi/linux/gentoo " LANG="en_US.utf8" LC_ALL="en_US.utf8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="fi" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/home/pkg/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/mnt/checkouts/overlays/betelgeuse" SYNC="rsync://192.168.150.1:/portage" USE="a52 aac acl acpi alsa apache2 audiofile bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts bluetooth bzip2 cairo cdb cddb cdparanoia cdr cli cracklib crypt cups dbus dlloader dri dts dvd dvdr dvdread emboss esd fam ffmpeg firefox gif gstreamer hal iconv isdnlog java jpeg kde kdeenablefinal kdehiddenvisibility libg++ logitech-mouse mad mikmod mjpeg mmx mp3 mpeg ncurses network nptl nptlonly nsplugin nvidia offensive ogg opengl pam pcre png ppds pppd qt3 quicktime readline real reflection rtc samba session spell spl sse sse2 ssl subversion svg symlink theora threads truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev unicode usb userlocales vim-syntax vorbis x86 xcb xcomposite xinerama xml xorg xv xvid xvmc zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="mouse keyboard evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="fi" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="none nvidia" Unset: CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Actually, 700 is the correct permissions (adjustable via PORTAGE_WORKDIR_MODE). The inconsistency comes from a chmod call inside the unpack() function. That's fixed in svn r5842.
This has been released in 2.1.2-r6.
So this is why I can not cd into ${WORKDIR} with a user added to group portage anymore (which I think would make more sense in at least a 0750 kind of way). So where is this wonderful thing documented? At least not in the manpage for make.conf (where I looked. twice)...
PORTAGE_WORKDIR_MODE was added for bug 8688 and apparently it's undocumented except in /etc/make.globals. I'll add it to the make.conf.5 manpage.