There has been an ongoing issue (a few months now) that I thought had to do with "emerge --sync"/rsync but seems not to be. I'll get up one day and discover, e.g. "dev-util", "sys-apps", etc directories in my home directory, owned by root. Normally I don't have time to investigate so I "sudo rm -rf" those directories. I figure it's some weird bug in portage or something strange about my config. This morning I had a terminal window open and happend to have a nautilus window in my home directory at the same time. I needed to pull in a package so I did this: ``` $ sudo emerge -1va media-libs/gst-rtsp-server Password: These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! [binary N ] dev-util/ninja-1.11.0-7::gentoo USE="-doc -emacs -test -vim-syntax" 0 KiB [binary N ] sys-devel/autoconf-wrapper-20220130-7::gentoo 0 KiB [binary N ] sys-devel/automake-wrapper-11-r1-4::gentoo 0 KiB [binary N ] sys-devel/autoconf-2.71-r1-7:2.71::gentoo USE="-emacs" 0 KiB [binary N ] dev-util/meson-0.63.1-2::gentoo USE="(-test)" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_10 python3_11 -python3_8 -python3_9" 0 KiB [binary N ] dev-util/meson-format-array-0-9::gentoo PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_10 python3_11 -python3_8 -python3_9" 0 KiB [binary N ] virtual/perl-JSON-PP-4.70.0-1::gentoo 9 KiB [binary N ] dev-util/glib-utils-2.72.3-1::gentoo PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_10 -python3_8 -python3_9 -python3_11" 0 KiB [binary N ] app-portage/elt-patches-20211104-6::gentoo 0 KiB [binary N ] sys-devel/automake-1.16.5-6:1.16::gentoo USE="-test" 0 KiB [binary N ] sys-devel/libtool-2.4.7-7:2::gentoo USE="-vanilla" 0 KiB [ebuild N ] net-libs/libsrtp-2.3.0-r1:2/1::gentoo USE="-debug -doc -nss -openssl -static-libs -test" 619 KiB [ebuild N ] media-plugins/gst-plugins-srtp-1.20.2:1.0::gentoo USE="-test" 0 KiB [ebuild N ] media-libs/gst-rtsp-server-1.20.2:1.0::gentoo USE="introspection nls -examples -static-libs -test" 352 KiB Total: 14 packages (14 new, 11 binaries), Size of downloads: 980 KiB Would you like to merge these packages? [Yes/No] ``` Just as soon as I pressed enter a "virtual" directory shows up in my home directory. Inside of "virtual" there is a "perl-JSON-PP" directory. That directory is empty. And from my occasional browsing that's always been the case: {CAT}/{PN} is an empty directory. The weird thing is it does not create directories for every package on the list of packages to install. Only some of them. I can't seem to figure out the pattern. In the above case it only create "virtual/perl-JSON-PP". I use a local binhost and local portage "mirror". On another machine, I typically run "emerge" from the root directory so these directories usually appear in the root directory. So it seems to always be whatever my current directory is. ``` $ emerge --info Portage 3.0.35 (python 3.11.0-candidate-1, default/linux/amd64/17.1/no-multilib, gcc-12.2.0, glibc-2.35-r8, 5.19.3 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-5.19.3-x86_64-12th_Gen_Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7-1260P-with-glibc2.35 KiB Mem: 15999644 total, 8464120 free KiB Swap: 23488508 total, 23488508 free Timestamp of repository gentoo: Tue, 23 Aug 2022 09:04:46 +0000 Timestamp of repository marduk: Fri, 19 Aug 2022 11:52:08 +0000 sh bash 5.1_p16-r1 ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.38 p4) 2.38 app-misc/pax-utils: 1.3.5::gentoo app-shells/bash: 5.1_p16-r1::gentoo dev-lang/perl: 5.36.0::gentoo dev-lang/python: 3.10.6_p2::gentoo, 3.11.0_rc1::gentoo dev-util/meson: 0.63.1::gentoo sys-apps/baselayout: 2.8-r2::gentoo sys-apps/sandbox: 2.29::gentoo sys-apps/systemd: 251.4::gentoo sys-devel/autoconf: 2.71-r1::gentoo sys-devel/automake: 1.16.5::gentoo sys-devel/binutils: 2.38-r2::gentoo sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.4.1::gentoo sys-devel/gcc: 12.2.0::gentoo sys-devel/gcc-config: 2.5-r1::gentoo sys-devel/libtool: 2.4.7::gentoo sys-devel/make: 4.3::gentoo sys-kernel/linux-headers: 5.19::gentoo (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.35-r8::gentoo Repositories: gentoo location: /var/db/repos/gentoo sync-type: rsync sync-uri: rsync://gbp/repos/lighthouse/gentoo priority: -1000 sync-rsync-verify-max-age: 24 sync-rsync-extra-opts: sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: False sync-rsync-verify-jobs: 1 marduk location: /var/db/repos/marduk sync-type: rsync sync-uri: rsync://gbp/repos/lighthouse/marduk masters: gentoo priority: 50 sync-rsync-extra-opts: sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: False Binary Repositories: binhost priority: 10 sync-uri: https://gbp/binpkgs/lighthouse ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="@FREE @BINARY-REDISTRIBUTABLE" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS=" -O3 -march=native -mtune=alderlake -pipe " CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS=" -O3 -march=native -mtune=alderlake -pipe " DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS=" --autounmask=n --binpkg-changed-deps --binpkg-respect-use --buildpkg --changed-deps=y --color=y --getbinpkg --jobs=4 --keep-going --oneshot --quiet-build --quiet-unmerge-warn --rebuilt-binaries=y --verbose-conflicts --with-bdeps=n " ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR" FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance buildpkg buildpkg-live cgroup config-protect-if-modified distlocks fixlafiles ipc-sandbox mount-sandbox multilib-strict network-sandbox news noinfo notitles parallel-fetch pid-sandbox preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox sfperms skiprocheck strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr" FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org" INSTALL_MASK="/usr/share/doc" LANG="en_US.utf8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="en" MAKEOPTS=" --jobs=5 --load-average=5.64 " PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs" PORTAGE_COMPRESS="" PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS="" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" SHELL="/bin/bash" USE="acl aes amd64 asm avx avx2 f16c fma3 glamor introspection ipv6 jpeg2k libglvnd mmx mmxext nls nptl opentype pam pclmul popcnt rdrand seccomp sha split-usr sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 systemd udev unicode urandom utf8 vaapi vulkan wayland xattr zstd" ABI_X86="64" APACHE2_MODULES="auth_digest authn_core authn_file authz authz_core authz_groupfile authz_host authz_user dav dav_fs dir group_file mime socache_shmcb unixd" APACHE2_MPMS="prefork" CAMERAS="*" CPU_FLAGS_X86="aes avx avx2 f16c fma3 mmx mmxext pclmul popcnt rdrand sha sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3" CURL_SSL="openssl" ELIBC="glibc" FFTOOLS="*" INPUT_DEVICES="libinput" KERNEL="linux" L10N="en" LLVM_TARGETS="AArch64 AMDGPU ARM AVR BPF Hexagon Lanai MSP430 Mips NVPTX PowerPC RISCV Sparc SystemZ WebAssembly X86 XCore" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-4" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_10" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_10 python3_11" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby31" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel i965 iris" Unset: ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, LC_ALL, LD, LEX, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, RANLIB, READELF, RUSTFLAGS, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS ``` Let me know what else I can do to debug.
Actually if you look at the above output, perl-JSON-PP appears to be the only package from the list that is both a binary package *and* needs to be pulled from the binhost. So perhaps that's *part* of the pattern. But that can't be the only pattern as it would happen more frequently than it does.
I've seen the same recently in some /etc/portage/package.* directory, very puzzling.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 864160 ***
