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 ) id 1QiSYO-0000XY-Pl for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:42:45 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2B3C821C1B1; Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:42:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C9D121C079 for ; Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:41:02 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.67,218,1309734000"; d="scan'208";a="787649325" Received: from 213-152-39-90.dsl.eclipse.net.uk (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.90]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 17 Jul 2011 15:41:01 +0100 Received: from [192.168.1.102] (unknown [192.168.1.102]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C5D8BAA31A for ; Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:34:24 +0100 (BST) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1244.3) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone got any older Portage snapshots kicking around? From: Stroller In-Reply-To: <20110716183744.GA2336@acm.acm> Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:40:58 +0100 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <6A089579-2022-4AFC-8BA6-499DD838C6C0@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> References: <20110716183744.GA2336@acm.acm> To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1244.3) X-Archives-Salt: X-Archives-Hash: 76be439217af6543d593363f4ac4b0c4 On 16 July 2011, at 19:37, Alan Mackenzie wrote: > ... > I have a /usr/portage from 2009-12-20 on my "rescue" system. I don't > think I've synched it after that (but I'm too lazy to look up the = `find' > info page to check properly). >=20 > Is that any good? Yeah, that would be fantastic, thanks, Alan. Could you possibly tar it up and stick it somewhere for me to download? > As a matter of interest, how, exactly, are you going to use the old > portage? Is it a matter of updating in two moderate chunks rather = than > everything at once? Yes, basically. If I were to `emerge --sync` today and try to `emerge -u world` I would = get loads of blockers where the current version of package X depends on = package Y version > 2.15. But only version 1.1 of package Y is = installed, and the latest version depends on some much newer version of = package Z. And the latest version of package Z depends upon something = else=85=20 That's the easy part. What tends to happen as you dig through these is = that you'll get a bunch of compile time errors because of package = version incompatibilities, ones that are undocumented or not listed as = version dependencies because no-one ever tried the latest version of = package X with a 3 year old version of library Y before. And I think you also tend to get "middle ground" problems where one = package needs a version of another that is higher than 1.1 but lower = than 2.5 and neither version are in the tree any more. I've only done this a couple of times, and never with such a large = "leap" as would be required for this system. But each time I really had = to play it by ear, got really ugly compile-time package failures and had = to sort them out by digging around in the Portage CVS attic. It's not = really difficult (for an experienced Gentoo admin) it's just a royal = pain, and pretty frustrating (as you solve one problem, only to run into = another). And it seemed like trying to be too aggressive in the = resolution of the problems made them worse. So, yes, what I would ideally like to do is update this "6 months at a = time". I can find a Portage tree that is 6 months newer than the = currently installed system, then all the packages in the new tree will = probably have been tested (documented deps &c, clean upgrade path) with = the older ones on the system - the versions would have been tested by = the Gentoo devs contemporaneously when they were originally in the = Portage tree together. When the system is working with the 6 months = newer packages, `emerge -e world` (to get *everything* up to date with = that time snapshot) and then do the same for a tree another 6 months = newer. This all sounds very time consuming. But updating a typical Gentoo = system that is 6 months old doesn't usually present too many problems - = the time consuming part is the compilation, which can be left running = overnight. Stroller.