On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 11:28 AM Michael Orlitzky <mjo@gentoo.org> wrote:

I won't say this is impossible, but in general it hasn't been true for a
long time in Gentoo. Old libraries are left behind until you rebuild the
things that link against them (that's what emerge @preserved-rebuild
does). When used correctly, subslot dependencies in ebuilds avoid the
need for even that additional step.

Right. Gentoo has safeguards in place already. Static-linking is only one tool in a large toolbox, and given Portage is a python program, it's not applicable to this situation.

I was referring to the case of some hypothetical package manager built with C/C++. In that situation, staticly linking the package manager would provide one aspect of defense against self-breakage.