From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org)
	by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60)
	(envelope-from <gentoo-user+bounces-127388-garchives=archives.gentoo.org@lists.gentoo.org>)
	id 1Qx34L-0008Uh-VB
	for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:32:02 +0000
Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E831321C168;
	Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:31:41 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from mail-pz0-f42.google.com (mail-pz0-f42.google.com [209.85.210.42])
	by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2FF9921C068
	for <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>; Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:30:44 +0000 (UTC)
Received: by pzk37 with SMTP id 37so4815100pzk.1
        for <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>; Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:44 -0700 (PDT)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
        d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
        h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:subject:references
         :in-reply-to:x-enigmail-version:content-type
         :content-transfer-encoding;
        bh=7pRJFIWkzIOsaFuGm5il9n0Vc32VkAM/71gPT48ge/M=;
        b=h+7I9hp6aqUgm/9wTPzw15AlEJ1PRtkyi+GGdjKXpLtdZ2ArKW+wn8MP0+CiHggJUr
         IEntFMC4EMaWHtARVxAYxYLnZPXiXeTK1JeRUq1kBPsJM8/RLj0etrx+gXfPVkWgOZBP
         HCMDgfIVJpoGxutOlLq8SXcn1zHLKjnQBOY4M=
Received: by 10.142.144.2 with SMTP id r2mr727306wfd.435.1314390644487;
        Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:44 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from [192.168.25.20] (173-8-195-225-Oregon.hfc.comcastbusiness.net. [173.8.195.225])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id i1sm3578870pbi.10.2011.08.26.13.30.41
        (version=SSLv3 cipher=OTHER);
        Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:42 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <4E580270.1020806@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:40 -0700
From: Bill Longman <bill.longman@gmail.com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110823 Lightning/1.0b3pre Lanikai/3.1.10
Precedence: bulk
List-Post: <mailto:gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>
List-Help: <mailto:gentoo-user+help@lists.gentoo.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:gentoo-user+subscribe@lists.gentoo.org>
List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail <gentoo-user.gentoo.org>
X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] /usr/portage index?
References: <loom.20110826T190301-342@post.gmane.org>
In-Reply-To: <loom.20110826T190301-342@post.gmane.org>
X-Enigmail-Version: 1.1.2
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Archives-Salt: 
X-Archives-Hash: 5e606abc50637699e730402a28e52099

On 08/26/2011 10:08 AM, James wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 
> In /usr/portage/sci-chemistry, there are lots
> of software offerings. My son is new to Gentoo
> but now I let him go root and install packages.
> 
> Does Gentoo maintain an  online index with brief
> description of each so one can make a guess as to
> which packages might be useful to him?
> 
> Is there some slick way to install all of the packages
> in this dir? (drawing a blank --most-likely-TGIF-syndrome)
> 
> and then go down a list (index) and test which ones
> he would want to keep?

My fave:

eix -c -C x11-wm

or in your case:

eix -c -C sci-chemistry

little -c gives a compact listing for you.