I frequently see packages failing. Then when I fix them and reemerge the package, I end up e.g. like this: >>> Completed installing ncftp-3.2.2-r1 into /Library/Gentoo/var/tmp/portage/net-ftp/ncftp-3.2.2-r1/image/Library/Gentoo/ ecompressdir: lzma /Library/Gentoo/usr/share/man >>> Installing (1 of 1) net-ftp/ncftp-3.2.2-r1 * checking 29 files for package collisions --- /Library/Gentoo/etc/ --- /Library/Gentoo/usr/ --- /Library/Gentoo/usr/bin/ >>> /Library/Gentoo/usr/bin/ncftp >>> Recording net-ftp/ncftp in "world" favorites file... * Messages for package net-ftp/ncftp-3.2.2-r1: * ERROR: net-ftp/ncftp-3.2.2-r1 failed: * econf failed * * Call stack: * ebuild.sh: 42: <call src_compile> * environment:2287: <call econf> * ebuild.sh: 538: die "econf failed" * * If you need support, post the topmost build error, and the call stack if relevant. >>> Auto-cleaning packages... >>> No outdated packages were found on your system. * GNU info directory index is up-to-date. Now this is confusing, as the merge went fine. I'm not completely sure if it happens with emerge, alone. For this case I first used "ebuild ... install" (which failed), and then used emerge for the same package. It may be related to that, but I thought I observed the same when having a failing emerge on a normal Linux with Portage 2.2
Portage 2.1.8.3 is affected when ebuild <...> install fails and then emerge works (or if emerge fails in a different way, it is a different message)
This is fixed in git now: http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/portage.git;a=commit;h=ce921f3ccba0cf1f1568b4a8ecc39a8b90f75349
This is fixed in 2.1.9.