Re: [gentoo-user] emerge --update : how to keep it going?

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

On Sat, 01 Dec 2012 19:58:45 +0000
Graham Murray <graham@gmurray.org.uk> wrote:

> Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com> writes:
> 
> > --keep-going does not help you, if the emerge does not start
> > because of missing dep/slot conflict/blocking/masking whatever... 
> 
> Though it would be nice if there was some flag, probably mainly of use
> with either ' -u @world' or --resume, to tell portage to get on and
> merge what it can and leave any masked packages or those which would
> generate blockers or conflicts. 
> 

That is a terribly bad idea, and you need to have a fairly deep
understanding of IT theory to see it (which is why so few people see
it). I don't know which camp you are in.

The command is to emerge world, and it's supposed to be determinate,
i.e. when it's ready to start you can tell what it's going to do, and
that should be what you told it to do, no more and no less[1]

the command is 
"emerge world"
not 
"emerge the-bits-of-world-you-think-you-can-deal-with"

If portage cannot emerge world and fully obey what root told it to do,
then portage correctly refuses to continue. It could not possibly be
any other way, as eg all automated build tools (puppet, chef and
friends, even flameeyes's sandbox) break horribly if you do it any
other way. Life is hard enough dealing with build failures without
adding portage do somethign different to what it was told into the mix.

[1] "determinate" excludes build failures, as those are not predictable.
Dep graph failures happen before the meaty work begins.



-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com