On 18/11/2010, at 12:20am, Walter Dnes wrote: > On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 01:41:45PM +0000, Stroller wrote > >> It's probably fixed in one of the updates! Why are you posting before >> you checked that!?!? > > It started happening suddenly And yes, I did search bugzilla, > although I admit my searches aren't always perfect. And if "emerge > --sync" output ends up telling me there is a portage update, I do run > it first.
You can't properly check if your bug is fixed in the updates by checking bugzilla. You need to check by *applying* the updates. In your previous message you didn't tell us that you'd upgraded Portage to the latest before getting this error on 115 remaining updates, and if you did actually do that, it doesn't really matter, because you still need to run the other updates first. If you phoned HP or Dell tech support and said you had a problem, they would ask if you had the latest version(s) of the software on your machine. They might well expect you to run system update to ensure all system packages are up to date, too. You shouldn't expect more support effort from the list than you would from a company you're paying for help! You might *get* more support effort from the folks here on the list, but that's because we're nice people (well, we all are except me and Alan) - make it easier for us! I'm sorry if this comes across as rude, but I think it's daft to ask the list for help when your system isn't up to date. It might not fix the problem on this occasion, but don't sneer at me if that's the case because plenty of times it will. You've got more than one easy workaround that will overcome this problem and allow you to review the `emerge --pretend` output for the duration of this emerge. The effort of writing an email asking for help (and giving all the information) is so much more than that of just running the update, that even if the update doesn't fix the problem 95% of the time, it's still less effort cumulatively to always update the system before looking into the problem! Incidentally: in your original message you stated that you pipe the output of `emerge -pv --update` to less. This will remove colour from the output, cause it to be rendered in black and white, and make it harder to read. I have one machine that doesn't do terminal colours - I don't use it that much, so I'm not sure that it's worth fixing, but only the other day I was marvelling at how much easier it is to read stuff on my Gentoo boxes with with syntax highlighting sprinkled throughout my terminal. For instance I use `export MANPAGER="/usr/bin/most"`. If you're not using a GUI terminal emulator with a scrollbar, then may I respectfully suggest you install `tmux` (a replacement for GNU `screen`) and use it. It takes a little while to get familiar with it, and with its keybindings and stuff, and perhaps even to get into the habit and mindset of using it, but it really is brilliant, and it will allow you to page through output of `emerge --pretend` whilst retaining the colours that portage applies to the USE flag information. Stroller.
