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List:       gentoo-user
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-user] So many questions!!
From:       Bart Verwilst <verwilst () gentoo ! org>
Date:       2002-01-06 3:31:37
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On Sun, 2002-01-06 at 04:12, S. Salman Ahmed wrote:
> 
> I just managed to install Gentoo on a couple of systems, and I am very
> impressed.
> 
> I have quite a few questions regarding the Portage system and Gentoo in
> general:
> 
> (1) Is there any way to update (ie rebuild from scratch) all installed
> packages ala Debian's "apt-get upgrade" ?
> 
Not yet... You can use 'emerge update' now, to update your system
packages, but support to update all packages on your system is for
the (i think) near future...

> (2) In the bootstrap phase of the install, is there any to specify/limit
> the locales that are generated for glibc ? Since I am only really
> interested in the English locales, doing so would reduce the duration of
> the bootstrap phase somewhat.
> 
Currently, No..

> (3) Is there a command line tool that will let me see the DESCRIPTION
> field from a particular's port's ebuild script ? For example, I am not
> sure what the port "app-admin/gentool" is for but I'd like to see what
> the package is for before emerging it.

Well.. Funny you should ask...
I've just finished pkgsearch, it will be available in portage tomorrow
or the day after that.. You can use this app (amongst other things) to 
read the DESCRIPTION tag of ebuilds... So it'll be there _very_ soon :o)

> (4) Is it possible to install a package in FreeBSD's
> "cd <port-dir> && make install" style ?
> 
Don't quite get this question..
All programs are compiled in the standard ./configure, make, make
install fashion...

> (5) How do I uninstall an installed package ?

Let's say you have kmerlin installed on your system, but you want to
uninstall (unmerge) it... just type 'ebuild
/var/db/pkg/net-im/kmerlin-0.3.1/kmerlin-0.3.1.ebuild unmerge' and it'll
be unmerged.

> some questions related to the overall design and philosophy of Gentoo:
> 
> (5) Why is there no proper installer (even a basic curses/text based
> one) ? Is it due to resource and time limitations or is it by design
> esp. wrt the target audience of Gentoo ?
Gentoo is still is still in his first stage of development, towards the
big 1.0 release.. Installer tools and such aren't a priority, and Gentoo
is mainly targeted at network dev's and programmers... Personally i
think the current way of installing rocks ;o)

> (6) Are there any future plans to split the Gentoo sources into stable
> and unstable branches like Debian (or similar to FreeBSD's -CURRENT
> vs. -STABLE) ?
Yes, i think this will happen...
But for now, we only have one branch..


I hope these answers were sufficient for you!


Greetings
 
-- 
Bart Verwilst
Gentoo Linux Developer, Desktop Team
Gent, Belgium


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