Re: [gentoo-user] ~amd64 - my experience so far...

[William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au>]

On Tue, 2010-04-13 at 09:09 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Monday 12 April 2010 18:33:21 KH wrote:
> > Am 12.04.2010 14:57, schrieb Alan McKinnon:
> > 
> 
> So, in the rare case of a user who can discipline himself to say within the 
> limits you describe, your advice is fine. But that's a theoretical situation 
> :-) and the real one is quite different in my experience.
> 
> 

This is exactly how I manage a number of gentoo systems - only unmasking
versions I need.  Ive actually never done a ~ system :)

However, on the other side of the coin is the fact I have also never run
a completely stable system either because I have never been able to get
the task done a system was built for without at least a few unstable
packages.  For an extreme example, remember when X was masked for some
security problem leaving stable with no X windows system (think it was
back in the xfree86 days).  You will quite often find that when trying
to build even a basic system, you have to keyword a few packages or you
get nowhere.  And if its a complex 1000 pkg plus system, you are
definitely going to have problems.

One hint I can give for long term stability is to try and specify
versions (either with = or ~) rather than just an open keywording.
Otherwise it gets out of hand with many unmasked packages needed and
needing maintaining on upgrades.

BillK