Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:09:55 +0100, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
> > mkdir -p /usr/local/portage/category/package
> > ## Dont't copy all ebuilds, just the one to be tweaked:
>
> Unless you are really short of disk space, what's wrong with
> copying the complete package directory - it makes life much
> simpler.

There's nothing wrong with it, but it makes life harder: now I must 
remember which of the ebuilds in /usr/local/portage/*/* I have 
patched and which not.  It's much easier to have only ebuilds in 
there that I've actually changed.

> If you just want to add a patch, you can do it with bashrc, no
> need to mess with overlays:
> http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-339019.html

(Or http://dev.gentoo.org/~solar/portage_misc/bashrc.autopatch for 
the original.)

Well, yes, that is one way.  But mostly I do not want things to be 
autopatched: I just want to change this one version and not any 
newer one.  And I do not want to have to remember to remove 
/usr/portage/local/patches/category/package afterwards; patch, 
emerge and forget is easier.

Also, when using overlays 'emerge -pev world' will immediately show 
which packages have been patched (because coming from my overlay).  
When autopatching, one has to check /usr/portage/local/patches/ 
separately.

> There's a script floating around that will copy an ebuild to your
> overlay and bump its version.

Found it here:  http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=445501
Since this script is a bit too verbose for my taste, I've continued 
working on my own.  Using the post_src_unpack() function mentioned 
by Bo, the inserting of patches becomes pretty easy.  See the 
attached file.  Suggestions and improvements are welcome.

> But neither of these are related to the original
> question, which was about preserving old versions.

Yes, sorry for changing focus; I was reacting to this:

> > > Overlays are there specifically for people who need
> > > something different from the standard portage tree.

Benno