From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1E68rV-0001Et-2U for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:32:53 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id j7JFVKFh003365; Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:31:20 GMT Received: from smtp17.wxs.nl (smtp17.wxs.nl [195.121.6.13]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id j7JFRTYh029277 for ; Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:27:29 GMT Received: from [10.0.0.150] (ip3e83ab52.speed.planet.nl [62.131.171.82]) by smtp17.wxs.nl (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 Patch 2 (built Jul 14 2004)) with ESMTP id <0ILH00EPD6Y44K@smtp17.wxs.nl> for gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org; Fri, 19 Aug 2005 17:27:40 +0200 (CEST) Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 17:27:39 +0200 From: Holly Bostick Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] emerge --update -> "the best version available" In-reply-to: <5bdc1c8b050819080164230de7@mail.gmail.com> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Message-id: <4305FA6B.30009@planet.nl> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Accept-Language: nl-NL, nl, en User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.6 (X11/20050803) X-Enigmail-Version: 0.92.0.0 References: <5bdc1c8b050819080164230de7@mail.gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: bfa11e57-aef0-49ca-95be-bb545a76faec X-Archives-Hash: 14fe00d4c4ae67240b36b86c5315a93d Mark Knecht schreef: > Hi, > I wonder what the explanation in the emerge man page about the > --update option really means. What is meant by, and how does emerge > pick, "the best version available"? > > - Mark > For those wondering, here's the quote: --update (-u) Updates packages to the best version available, which may not always be the highest version number due to masking for testing and development. This will also update direct dependencies which may not be what you want. In general, use this option only in combination with the world or system target. I accept that this is somewhat unclear, but to explain it fully would take more space than a man page really is for. But anyway, the 'best' version available is mostly determined by the arch masks, which are determined by the developers. "Best" in this case is a somewhat poor choice of words, but at least indicates the subjectiveness of the determination. In any case, a few examples: media-video/mplayer Available versions: 1.0_pre6-r4 1.0_pre6-r5 1.0_pre6-r6 1.0_pre7 Installed: 1.0_pre7 Homepage: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ Description: Media Player for Linux All available versions of mplayer are stable, so the 'best' version is the most recent stable. media-libs/xine-lib Available versions: ~1_rc6-r2 1_rc8-r1 1.0-r2 1.0.1-r3 ~1.0.2 ~1.1.0 ~1.1.0-r1 Installed: 1.0.1-r3 Homepage: http://xine.sourceforge.net/ Description: Core libraries for Xine movie player in this case, if one was using stable arch, and had not activated unstable for this package (as I haven't), the best version is the most recent stable (1.0.1-r3), which is not the most recent version. However, if one was using ~arch, or had activated unstable for this package in /etc/portage/package.mask, then the 'best' version would be 1.1.0-r1, which is the most recent revision, but not in stable Portage. media-video/ati-drivers Available versions: 8.8.25-r3 8.10.19 8.12.10 [M]8.13.3 [M]8.13.4 8.14.13 8.14.13-r1 8.14.13-r2 [M]8.14.13-r3 *8.16.20 Installed: 8.14.13-r2 Homepage: http://www.ati.com Description: Ati precompiled drivers for r350, r300, r250 and r200 chipsets Now in this case, the 'best' version is the most recent stable. The second most recent version (8.14.13-r3) is hard masked, but if I unmasked it with /etc/portage/package.unmask (and possibly also /etc/portage/package.keywords), then Portage would consider it the 'best', insofar as it would attempt to install it if I upgraded the drivers. Of course, the very fact that you have to manually unmask the packages should give you pause as to whether you really want to consider this the 'best' for you. The very most recent version (8.16.20) is 'not available' -- meaning that it will never be considered the 'best' version until it returns to Portage; masking or unmasking is of no use here. I know, because I had unmasked and installed the latest drivers, which did not work well, to put it mildly, and today I synced and Portage downgraded them. I would have downgraded them manually anyway, but it was interesting to see Portage downgrade them by force despite the fact that they were still unmasked. They have so many problems that they are no longer on the Portage radar until the issues are determined to at least an extent that someone knows what to fix, and who has to fix it (Gentoo, the kernel guys if it's a kernel conflict, ATI). So, 'best' is a matter of judgement, and basically Gentoo sorts packages into categories so that you can have some context to make the judgement about what is best *for you*. If stable is best for you, then Portage will choose the stable packages (because you told it to). If unstable is best for you, then Portage will choose the unstable packages (because you told it to). If stable is generally best, but in some specific cases, unstable is best for you, then Portage will choose the stable packages except where you told it that unstable is OK. That's how it's done, mostly. HTH, Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list