daid kahl wrote:
2. The second guide uses a lot of "one-shot" emerges; could anyone
please explain why I'd use a one-shot?
ISTM that if a package is on my system, I'd want it routinely updated.
If I need it only once, then instruct me to unmerge it after it's done!?
The basic idea of --oneshot is to avoid recording in the portage world
file. So, for example, you want xorg and some other things in world. This
will call in the dependencies. However, for major upgrades, my experience
with other packages is that sometimes it's better to pull some new
dependencies in first, then install the update. In principle, portage
should take care of all this, but portage isn't always perfect. I'd guess
this is the reason for --oneshot on some new xorg dependencies. They'll be
called in on updates via dependencies, but this is a better way to proceed
for updating from a lower version. Maybe on a newer version of xorg, these
dependencies won't be required (unlikely, but possible), and thus you can
avoid putting them explicitly in world.
~daid
Makes sense... thanks!
