Re: [gentoo-dev] little question (maybe stupid)

[Thilo Bangert <bangert@gentoo.org>]

> can we full upgrade
> the system, or are we stuck, as with every linux, with the stock
> binary install ? I mean, instead of a "make buildworld", can we
> upgrade the "world" package, from src ?
>

to update the system in gentoo we do:

# emerge --update world

which will download, compile and install any outdated package (except 
for those that you pinned or are not part of the world "profile")

here is the output of # emerge --help, which should give you an idea of 
how it works:
bangert@kniffel bangert $ emerge --help

Usage: emerge [ options ] [ action ] [ ebuildfile | tbz2file | 
dependency ] ...
       emerge [ options ] [ action ] system
       emerge [ --clean -c ] sync | rsync
       emerge --help  -h [ rsync | system | config ]

Help (this screen):
       --help (-h short option)
              Displays this help; an additional argument (see above) 
will tell
              emerge to display detailed help.

Actions:
       clean (-c short option)
              Cleans the system by removing outdated packages which will 
not
              remove functionalities or prevent your system from 
working.
              The arguments can be in several different formats :
              * world
              * system
              * /var/db/pkg/category/package-version, or
              * 'dependency specification' (in single quotes is best.)
              Here are a few examples of the dependency specification 
format:
              binutils matches
                  binutils-2.11.90.0.7 and binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1
              >binutils-2.11.90.0.7 matches
                  binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1
              sys-devel/binutils matches
                  binutils-2.11.90.0.7 and binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1
              sys-devel/binutils-2.11.90.0.7 matches
                  binutils-2.11.90.0.7
              >sys-devel/binutils-2.11.90.0.7 matches
                  binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1
              >=sys-devel/binutils-2.11.90.0.7 matches
                  binutils-2.11.90.0.7 and binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1
              <sys-devel/binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1 matches
                  binutils-2.11.90.0.7
              <=sys-devel/binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1 matches
                  binutils-2.11.90.0.7 and binutils-2.11.92.0.12.3-r1

       unmerge (-C short option)
              WARNING: This action can remove important packages!
              Removes all matching packages without checking for 
outdated.
              versions. This thus effectively removes a package 
completely from
              your system. Specify arguments using the dependency 
specification
              format described in the clean action above.

       prune (-P short option)
              WARNING: This action can remove important packages!
              Removes all older versions of a package from your system.
              This action doesn't always verify the possible binary
              incompatibility between versions and can thus remove 
essential
              dependencies from your system.
              The argument format is the same as for the clean action.

       search (-s short option)
              searches for matches of the supplied string in the current 
local
              portage tree. The search string is a regular expression.
              A few examples:
              emerge search '^kde'
                  list all packages starting with kde
              emerge search 'gcc$'
                  list all packages ending with gcc
              emerge search '' or
              emerge search '.*'
                  list all available packages

       inject (-i short option)
              Add a stub entry for a package so that Portage thinks that 
it's
              installed when it really isn't.  Handy if you roll your 
own
              packages.  Example:
              emerge inject gentoo-sources-2.4.19

Options:
       --autoclean (-a short option)
              emerge normally cleans out the package-specific temporary
              build directory before it starts the building a package.  
With
              --autoclean, it will also clean the directory *after* the
              build completes.  This option is automatically enabled for
              normal users, but maintainers can use this option to 
enable
              autocleaning.

       --buildpkg (-b short option)
              tell emerge to build binary packages for all ebuilds 
processed
              (in addition to actually merging the packages.  Useful for
              maintainers or if you administrate multiple Gentoo Linux
              systems (build once, emerge tbz2s everywhere).

       --debug (-d short option)
              Tell emerge to run the ebuild command in --debug mode. In 
this
              mode, the bash build environment will run with the -x 
option,
              causing it to output verbose debug information print to 
stdout.
              --debug is great for finding bash syntax errors.

       --emptytree (-e short option)
              Virtually tweaks the tree of installed packages to only 
contain
              glibc, this is great to use together with --pretend. This 
makes
              it possible for developers to get a complete overview of 
the
              complete dependency tree of a certain package.

       --fetchonly (-f short option)
              Instead of doing any package building, just perform 
fetches for
              all packages (main package as well as all dependencies.)

       --nodeps
              Merge specified packages, but don't merge any 
dependencies.
              Note that the build may fail if deps aren't satisfied.

       --noreplace (-n short option)
              Skip the packages specified on the command-line that have
              already been installed.  Without this option, any 
packages,
              ebuilds, or deps you specify on on the command-line *will* 
cause
              Portage to remerge the package, even if it is already 
installed.
              Note that Portage won't remerge dependencies by default.

       --oneshot
              Emerge as normal, but don't add packages to the world 
profile for
              later updating.


       --onlydeps (-o short option)
              Only merge (or pretend to merge) the dependencies of the
              specified packages, not the packages themselves.

       --pretend (-p short option)
              instead of actually performing the merge, simply display 
what
              ebuilds and tbz2s *would* have been installed if --pretend
              weren't used.  Using --pretend is strongly recommended 
before
              installing an unfamiliar package.  In the printout, N = 
new,
              U = upgrading, R = replacing, B = blocked by an already 
installed
              package.

       --update (-u short option)
              Updates packages to the most recent version available.

       --usepkg (-k short option)
              tell emerge to use binary packages (from $PKGDIR) if they 
are
              available, thus possibly avoiding some time-consuming 
compiles.
              This option is useful for CD installs; you can export
              PKGDIR=/mnt/cdrom/packages and then use this option to 
have
              emerge "pull" binary packages from the CD in order to 
satisfy
              dependencies.

       --verbose (-v short option)
              Tell emerge to run in verbose mode.  Currently, this 
causes
              emerge to print out GNU info errors, if any.

(urghs - not really... sorry)

> This is a must for me, as I mainly work from home, and I'd hate to go
> some place just to upgrade a server via cd or anything similar.
>
> Congrats on an interesting linux :-]

-- 
regards                             |  Please file bugreports here:
Thilo                               |  http://bugs.gentoo.org