I don't think that any emerge command with "-p" should write to /var/log/portage/. The -p flag is explicitly supposed to do nothing. Two examples here (but before I begin, there is an additional problem with the ati-drivers ebuld - the files download without any problem from the gentoo mirrors, even though there is a message saying that one of them needs to be downloaded manually). [no problem] $ emerge -p oracle-jre-bin These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [ebuild Rf ] dev-java/oracle-jre-bin-1.8.0.102:1.8::gentoo USE="alsa cups fontconfig -headless-awt -javafx -jce -nsplugin -pax_kernel (-selinux)" 0 KiB Total: 1 package (1 reinstall), Size of downloads: 0 KiB Fetch Restriction: 1 package [writes to /var/log/portage/] $ emerge -fp oracle-jre-bin These are the packages that would be fetched, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! !!! dev-java/oracle-jre-bin-1.8.0.102 has fetch restriction turned on. !!! This probably means that this ebuild's files must be downloaded !!! manually. See the comments in the ebuild for more information. * Please download 'jre-8u102-linux-x64.tar.gz' from: * 'http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html' * and move it to '/usr/portage/distfiles' * * If the above mentioned urls do not point to the correct version anymore, * please download the files from Oracle's java download archive: * * http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/java-archive-javase8-2177648.html#jre-8u102-oth-JPR * [no problem] $ emerge -p ati-drivers These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [ebuild N ] x11-proto/xf86miscproto-0.9.3::gentoo 83 KiB [ebuild N ] x11-drivers/ati-drivers-15.9-r1:1::gentoo USE="-debug -gdm-hack -modules -pax_kernel -qt4 -static-libs" ABI_X86="(64) -32" 177,319 KiB Total: 2 packages (2 new), Size of downloads: 177,402 KiB [writes to /var/log/portage/] $ emerge -fp ati-drivers These are the packages that would be fetched, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/xf86miscproto-0.9.3.tar.bz2 http://xorg.freedesktop.org/releases/individual/proto/xf86miscproto-0.9.3.tar.bz2 http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/amd-catalyst-15.9-linux-installer-15.201.1151-x86.x86_64.zip http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/gentoo/distfiles/amd-catalyst-15.9-linux-installer-15.201.1151-x86.x86_64.zip http://gentoo-distfiles.mirrors.tds.net/distfiles/amd-catalyst-15.9-linux-installer-15.201.1151-x86.x86_64.zip http://gentoo.osuosl.org/distfiles/amd-catalyst-15.9-linux-installer-15.201.1151-x86.x86_64.zip http://gentoo.ussg.indiana.edu/distfiles/amd-catalyst-15.9-linux-installer-15.201.1151-x86.x86_64.zip http://distfiles.gentoo.org/distfiles/xvba-sdk-0.74-404001.tar.gz http://developer.amd.com/wordpress/media/2012/10/xvba-sdk-0.74-404001.tar.gz * The driver packages * amd-catalyst-15.9-linux-installer-15.201.1151-x86.x86_64.zip xvba-sdk-0.74-404001.tar.gz * need to be downloaded manually from * http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Linux+x86 * and http://developer.amd.com/wordpress/media/2012/10/xvba-sdk-0.74-404001.tar.gz
It's probably the elog subsystem that's doing the writing. What file(s) do you see it create in /var/log/portage?
(In reply to Zac Medico from comment #1) > It's probably the elog subsystem that's doing the writing. What file(s) do > you see it create in /var/log/portage? The latter examples writes x11-drivers:ati-drivers-15.12-r1:20160928-115135.log The contents: * Package: x11-drivers/ati-drivers-15.12-r1 * Repository: gentoo * Maintainer: x11@gentoo.org jekarlson@gmail.com,proxy-maint@gentoo.org * USE: abi_x86_64 amd64 elibc_glibc kernel_linux userland_GNU * FEATURES: sandbox userpriv usersandbox * The driver packages * radeon-crimson-15.12-15.302-151217a-297685e.zip xvba-sdk-0.74-404001.tar.gz * need to be downloaded manually from * http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Linux+x86 * or http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Linux+x86_64 * and http://developer.amd.com/wordpress/media/2012/10/xvba-sdk-0.74-404001.tar.gz
