After an emerge sync, I got this output from emerge -uDv world -p: Calculating world dependencies ...done! [ebuild U ] dev-libs/openssl-0.9.7d-r2 [0.9.7d-r1] -debug -emacs (-uclibc) 4,866 kB [ebuild U ] sys-libs/glibc-2.3.4.20041102 [2.3.4.20041021] -build -debug -erandom -hardened -multilib -nls -nomalloccheck +nptl -nptlonly +pic -userlocales 0 kB When I removed the pretend, it started merging glibc instead of openssl. When using "emerge -uv openssl glibc" it also starts with glibc instead of openssl Reproducible: Didn't try Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge sync 2. emerge -uDv world -p 3. emerge -uDv world Actual Results: It started merging glibc first Expected Results: It should have merged the packages in the given order Portage 2.0.51-r3 (default-linux/x86/2004.3, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.4.20041021-r0, 2.6.9-nitro2 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.9-nitro2 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+ Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r5 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.14.90.0.8-r1 Headers: sys-kernel/linux26-headers-2.6.8.1-r1 Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.5.2-r5 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/alias /var/qmail/control /var/spool/fax/etc" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon-xp -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.easynet.nl/mirror/gentoo/ http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j5" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="3dnow X aalib alsa apache2 apm arts avi bitmap-fonts bzlib calender cdr crypt cups dba directfb divx4linux dvd dvdr encode esd f77 fam filepro flac foomaticdb gd gdbm gif gnome gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 guile imagemagick imlib java jpeg junit kde ldap libg++ libwww live mad mikmod mime mmx motif mpeg msn mysql ncurses nptl odbc offensive oggvorbis ooo-kde opengl pam pdflib perl pic png postgres python qt quicktime readline rplay samba scanner sdl session slang spell sse ssl stroke svga tcltk tcpd threads tiff truetype usb x86 xine xinerama xml xml2 xmms xprint xv xvid zlib"
Not a bug. 'Must use' and 'Could use' are different when calculating deps. You have satisfied the requirement for all already, thus depending upon how you recurse the deps, they can be ordered differently.
noticed this was still open. Closing now. Thanks for the explanation