Re: [gentoo-user] --buildpkg and doing a dry run on a upgrade

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

Apparently, though unproven, at 12:57 on Saturday 21 August 2010, Dale did 
opine thusly:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm wanting to install the latest KDE 4.5 which is in the kde overlay.
> I got everything unmasked, keyworded and ready to go.  Since this is a
> large upgrade and will take some time to compile, I would like to just
> build the binaries then come back and install them when the compiling is
> all done.  The emerge man page says this:
> 
> --buildpkgonly (-B)
> Creates binary packages for all ebuilds processed without  actually
> merging  the  packages.   This comes with the caveat that all build-time
> dependencies must already be emerged on the system.
> 
> The part that I have a question on is the dependencies.  Will portage be
> able to build all the packages when the previous packages are not
> installed yet?  My thinking says this won't work but looking for a
> second opinion from a more "seasoned" guru.


Here's excellent advice:

Do not install KDE-4.5 yet

wait for 4.5.1

First, it's in an overlay, so when 4.5 hits the tree you will unmerge the 
whole lot again and redo it. How many spare cycles you got?

If you have 4.4.5 installed from portage you will likely hit clashes with the 
overlay. There's were never pleasant in the 4.[23] era, I don't see that 
changing.

4.5.0 has some pretty severe regressions, bad enough for QA to not put it in 
the tree

4.5.0 does not have the kdepim suite - this might not apply to you. I can just 
imagine the akonadi updates when 4.5.1 hits the tree....

You gotta ask yourself "Is there a COMPELLING need for 4.5.0 other than it's 
brand new and shiny?"

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com