Re: [gentoo-user] "masked by: EAPI 7" trying up update "portage" - how to proceed

[Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2555 bytes --]

On Friday, 12 June 2020 16:05:04 BST Jack wrote:
> On 2020.06.12 10:38, Michael wrote:
> > On Friday, 12 June 2020 15:00:25 BST Jack wrote:
> >> What about some sort of tagging?  Not bundling or packaging, just
> >> occasional (quarterly?) labels, with a matrix indicating how
> >> difficult it would be to upgrade.  A hint to folks who tend to
> >> update less often than they should.  A "heads up" that things added
> >> or upgraded in the past quarter are going to be very difficult to do
> >> if you are starting with something more than three/five/...?
> >> quarters older than that.  Of course, I suppose if you read the news
> >> items as they are released, then you should have a pretty good idea
> >> of which of them are likely to bite you if you wait too long.
> > 
> > Perhaps I misunderstand this, but isn't it as simple as booting off a
> > LiveCD/ USB, chrooting, changing profiles, cleaning up world file and
> > letting rip with a full 'emerge -e' @system, followed by @world for
> > good measure?
> 
> The issue I was addressing is not how to upgrade, but whether Gentoo
> could have some sort of release cycle decreasing the chance of delayed
> updates becoming a nightmare.  Unfortunately, it seems there isn't much
> point, because folks who delay upgrading until it becomes painful, if
> not close to impossible, probably won't take such hints anyway.
> 
> However (and I"m just musing here) I wonder if you could do an "emerge
> --sync," drop a new stage 3 tarball over the existing installation, 

Ughh! I wouldn't try that on a system I want to keep.  :-)

It is cleaner to back up /etc and world, plus any databases under /var/lib or 
wherever they may be residing, then delete the filesystem and download a fresh 
Stage 3, and restore any config/data files needed from the backup.  It will be 
an overall cleaner and faster approach with no cruft left behind from the old 
fs.


> and
> then do "emerge -e @system" followed by "emerge -u @world?"  (including
> other appropriate parameters.)

This is a proposal I made earlier which makes sense if you try to recover a 
system with a borked toolchain.  However, with a new Stage 3 install re-
emerging @world is all that's needed, after a fresh portage re-sync.


> To answer a question from a different sub-thread, if you can
> successfully update @world, there's no need to do @system first.
> However, if @world has too many problems, it can be easier to upgrade
> @system, and then work through the rest a few packages at a time.

Yes, you are right, see my paragraph above.

[-- Attachment #2: This is a digitally signed message part. --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 833 bytes --]