Answers inline > Hi! > > With the Gentoo install fest coming up, I'd like to ask a couple of > silly questions. I've done some research on www.gentoo.org > myself, but > some points are still not clear to me, yet. > > 1. As I understood the documentation, the portage tree > consists of the > ebuild files of all packages currently part of Gentoo. How > big are these > files and how much data would I have to download each time I > 'emerge sync'? Typically 20-30 lines for the small ones I've looked at, ie a few k at most. You only need to get the differences, on a 56k modem it takes me less than 10 minutes to 'emerge rsync' on a weekly basis
> > 2. As I further understood, the ebuilds contain the location > where the > source can be retrieved. Does this imply that the sorces have to be > downloaded from the actual project sites (eg. www.gimp.org) > or are the > sources available from the Gentoo mirrors? Sources are usually grabbed from gentoo mirrors > > 3. How long is the compile time for a medium sized package, > say eg. gimp > again? I know that this is a silly question and can't be answered > directly, because it'll of course depend on my hardware. But if you > could compare the compile time of a package to the compile time of a > 2.4.x kernel, it'd give me a hint what I'd have to expect on > my machine > (P4M 1.8). Less time than it takes me with my Athlon 800 :) It's really no hassle, unless you need the package "RIGHT NOW!". Just compile The new version of Gimp in the background while you use your current gimp version. It's not really too painful on my machine. > > 4. And finally, if there're packages which have not yet an ebuild in > portage, how difficult will it be to compile those without > the compiling > tools of portage? Usually, download the package, ./configure make su make install There is also RPM support (shudder, grimace!) if you really need it through an RPM tool. > > I hope these questions are not too silly, but I couldn't find out > myself. Thanks for any comments/ replies! > > Cheers, > Conrad. No questions are silly :) The first install session is the killer, after you have your "daily use" apps installed, the compile time issue kinda drops away, and remember compile time is time you don't have to spend in front of the computer - whereas resolving dependancy hell is definitely wasted time in front of your PC. Brad
