SYNOPSIS
emerge [options] [action] [ebuild | tbz2file | class | dependency] ... emerge --sync | --info | --version emerge --search somestring emerge --help [system | config | sync]
DESCRIPTION
emerge is the definitive command-line interface to the Portage system. It is primarily used for installing packages, and emerge can automatically handle any dependencies that the desired package has. emerge can also update the portage tree, making new and updated packages available. emerge gracefully handles updating installed packages to newer releases as well. It handles both source and binary packages, and it can be used to create binary packages for distribution.
EBUILDS, TBZ2S, CLASSES AND DEPENDENCIES
emerge primarily installs packages. You can specify packages to install in one of four main ways: an ebuild, a tbz2file, a class, or a dependency.
ebuild An ebuild must be, at a minimum, a valid Portage package directory name without a version or category, such as portage or python. Both categories and version numbers may be used in addition, such as sys-apps/portage or =python-2.2.1-r2. emerge ignores a trailing slash so that filename completion can be used. The ebuild may also be an actual filename, such as /usr/portage/app-admin/python/python-2.2.1-r2.ebuild. WARNING: The implementation of emerge /path/to/ebuild is broken and so this syntax shouldn't be used. tbz2file A tbz2file must be a valid .tbz2 created with ebuild <package>-<version>.ebuild package or emerge --buildpkg [category/]<package> or quickpkg /var/db/pkg/<category>/<package>. class Package classes are a convenient shorthand for large groups of packages. Two classes are currently supported: system and world. system refers to a set of packages deemed necessary for your system to run properly. world contains all of the packages in system, along with any other packages listed in /var/lib/portage/world. [See FILES below for more information.] Note that these commands are generally used in conjunction with --update. dependency A dependency describes bounds on a package that you wish to install. See portage(5) for the details on these 'atoms'. For example, >=dev-lang/python-2.2.1-r2 matches the latest available version of Python greater than or equal to 2.2.1-r2. Similarly, <dev-lang/python-2.0 matches the latest available version of Python before 2.0. Note that in many shells you will need to escape characters such as '<' and '='; use single- or double-quotes around the dependency to get around escaping problems.
ACTIONS
No action If no action is specified, the action is to merge in the specified packages, satisfying any dependencies that they may have. The arguments can be ebuilds, tbz2s, classes, or dependencies. Note that you need to use the --usepkg option if you want to install a tbz2. The packages are added to the world file at the end, so that they are considered for later updating. --clean (-c) Cleans the system by removing packages that will not affect the functionality of the system. The arguments can be ebuilds, classes, or dependencies. For example, emerge clean binutils cleans out old versions of binutils; emerge --clean net-www/mozilla-0.9.9-r2 cleans out that specific version of Mozilla. This is generally safe to use. Note that --clean does not remove unslotted packages. --depclean Determines all packages installed on the system that have no explicit reason for being there. emerge generates a list of packages which it expects to be installed by checking the system package list and the world file. It then compares that list to the list of packages which are actually installed; the differences are listed as unnecessary packages and then unmerged after a short timeout. WARNING: Removing some packages may cause packages which link to the removed package to stop working and complain about missing libraries. Re-emerge the complaining package to fix this issue. Note that changes in USE flags can drastically affect the output of --depclean. --info This is a list of information to include in bug reports which aids the developers with fixing any problems you may report. Please include this information when submitting a bug report. Expanded output can be obtained with the --verbose option. --metadata Causes portage to process all the metacache files as is normally done on the tail end of an rsync update using emerge --sync. The processing creates the cache database that portage uses for pre-parsed lookups of package data. --nocolor Make sure none of the output from portage contains color. --prune (-P) WARNING: This action can remove important packages! Tries to remove all but the last version installed. Since the command currently does not handle multiple versions of the same package properly, beware! This does not check dependencies, so it may also remove packages necessary for the proper operation of your system. Use --clean instead unless you really know what you're doing. Its arguments can be ebuilds, classes, or dependencies -- see --clean above for examples. You have been warned! --regen Causes portage to check and update the dependency cache of all ebuilds in the portage tree. The cache is used to speed up searches and the building of dependency trees. This command is not recommended for rsync users as rsync updates the cache using server-side caches. If you do not know the differences between a 'rsync user' and some other user, then you are a 'rsync user' :). Rsync users should simply run emerge --sync to regenerate the cache. After a portage update, rsync users may find it convenient to run emerge --metadata to rebuild the cache as portage does at the end of a sync operation. --search (-s) Searches for matches of the supplied string in the portage tree. The --search string is a regular expression. For example, emerge --search "^kde" searches for any package that starts with "kde"; emerge --search "gcc$" searches for any package that ends with "gcc"; emerge --search "office" searches for any package that contains the word "office". If you want to search the package descriptions as well, use the --searchdesc option. --sync Initiates a portage tree update with one of the rsync.gentoo.org mirrors. Note that any changes you have made to the portage tree will be erased. Except for special circumstances, this uses rsync to do the update. See make.conf(5)'s description of PORTDIR_OVERLAY for a method to avoid deletions. --unmerge (-C) WARNING: This action can remove important packages! Removes all matching packages. This does no checking of dependencies, so it may remove packages necessary for the proper operation of your system. Its arguments can be ebuilds, classes, or dependencies -- see --clean above for examples. --config Run package specific actions needed to be executed after the emerge process has completed. This usually entails configuration file setup or other similar setups that the user may wish to run.
OPTIONS
--ask (-a) Before performing the merge, display what ebuilds and tbz2s will be installed, in the same format as when using --pretend; then ask whether to continue with the merge or abort. Using --ask is more efficient than using --pretend and then executing the same command without --pretend, as dependencies will only need to be calculated once. --buildpkg (-b) Tells emerge to build binary packages for all ebuilds processed in addition to actually merging the packages. Useful for maintainers or if you administrate multiple Gentoo Linux systems (build once, emerge tbz2s everywhere). The package will be created in the ${PKGDIR}/All directory. An alternative for already-merged packages is to use quickpkg which creates a tbz2 from the live filesystem. --buildpkgonly (-B) Creates binary packages for all ebuilds processed without actually merging the packages. This comes with the caveat that all build-time dependencies must already be emerged on the system. --changelog (-l) Use this in conjunction with the --pretend action. This will show the ChangeLog entries for all the packages that will be upgraded. --columns Used alongside --pretend to cause the package name, new version, and old version to be displayed in an aligned format for easy cut-n-paste. --debug (-d) Tells emerge to run the emerge command in --debug mode. In this mode the bash build environment will run with the -x option, causing it to output verbose debugging information to stdout. --debug is great for finding bash syntax errors. --deep (-D) When used in conjunction with --update, this flag forces emerge to consider the entire dependency tree of packages, instead of checking only the immediate dependencies of the packages. As an example, this catches updates in libraries that are not directly listed in the dependencies of a package. --emptytree (-e) Virtually tweaks the tree of installed packages to contain nothing. This is great to use together with --pretend. This makes it possible for developers to get a complete overview of the entire dependency tree of a certain package. --fetchonly (-f) Instead of doing any package building, just perform fetches for all packages (the main package as well as all dependencies). --fetch-all-uri (-F) Instead of doing any package building, just perform fetches for all packages (the main package as well as all dependencies), grabbing all potential files. --getbinpkg (-g) Using the server and location defined in PORTAGE_BINHOST (see make.conf(5)), portage will download the information from each binary package found and it will use that information to help build the dependency list. This option implies -k. (Use -gK for binary-only merging.) --getbinpkgonly (-G) This option is identical to -g, as above, except it will not use ANY information from the local machine. All binaries will be downloaded from the remote server without consulting packages existing in the local packages directory. --help (-h) Displays help information for emerge. Adding one of the additional arguments listed above will give you more specific help information on that subject. The internal emerge help documentation is updated more frequently than this man page; check it out if you are having problems that this man page does not help resolve. --newuse (-N) Tells emerge to include installed packages where USE flags have changed since compilation. An asterisk marks when a USE flag has changed since the package was compiled. --noconfmem Causes portage to disregard merge records indicating that a config file inside of a CONFIG_PROTECT directory has been merged already. Portage will normally merge those files only once to prevent the user from dealing with the same config multiple times. This flag will cause the file to always be merged. --nodeps (-O) Merges specified packages without merging any dependencies. Note that the build may fail if the dependencies aren't satisfied. --noreplace (-n) Skips the packages specified on the command-line that have already been installed. Without this option, any packages, ebuilds, or deps you specify on the command-line *will* cause Portage to remerge the package, even if it is already installed. Note that Portage will not remerge dependencies by default. --nospinner Disables the spinner for the session. The spinner is active when the terminal device is determined to be a TTY. This flag disables it regardless. --oneshot (-1) Emerge as normal, but do not add the packages to the world profile for later updating. --onlydeps (-o) Only merge (or pretend to merge) the dependencies of the packages specified, not the packages themselves. --pretend (-p) Instead of actually performing the merge, simply display what *would* have been installed if --pretend weren't used. Using --pretend is strongly recommended before installing an unfamiliar package. In the printout,
N = new, (not yet installed)
S = new, slot installation (side-by-side versions)
U = updating, (changing versions)
D = downgrade, (Best version seems lower)
R = replacing, (Remerging same version))
F = fetch restricted, (Manual download)
f = fetch restricted, (Already downloaded)
B = blocked by an already installed package --quiet (-q) Results may vary, but the general outcome is a reduced or condensed output from portage's displays. --resume Resumes the last merge operation. Please note that this operation will only return an error on failure. If there is nothing for portage to do, then portage will exit with a message and a success condition. --searchdesc (-S) Matches the search string against the description field as well as the package name. Take caution as the descriptions are also matched as regular expressions. --skipfirst This action is only valid when used with --resume. It removes the first package in the resume list so that a merge may continue in the presence of an uncorrectable or inconsequential error. This should only be used in cases where skipping the package will not result in failed dependencies. --tree (-t) Shows the dependency tree for the given target by indenting dependencies. This is only really useful in combination with --emptytree or --update and --deep. --update (-u) Updates packages to the best version available, which may not always be the highest version number due to masking for testing and development. This will also update direct dependencies which may not be what you want. In general, use this option only in combination with the world or system target. --upgradeonly (-U) Updates packages, but excludes updates that would result in a lower version of the package being installed. SLOTs are considered at a basic level.
This option is deprecated and should not be used anymore. Please use the /etc/portage/package.* files from now on. --usepkg (-k) Tells emerge to use binary packages (from $PKGDIR) if they are available, thus possibly avoiding some time-consuming compiles. This option is useful for CD installs; you can export PKGDIR=/mnt/cdrom/packages and then use this option to have emerge "pull" binary packages from the CD in order to satisfy dependencies. --usepkgonly (-K) Tells emerge to only use binary packages (from $PKGDIR). All the binary packages must be available at the time of dependency calculation or emerge will simply abort. Portage does not use $PORTDIR when calculating dependency information so all masking information is ignored. --verbose (-v) Tell emerge to run in verbose mode. Currently this flag causes emerge to print out GNU info errors, if any, and to show the USE flags that will be used for each package when pretending. --version (-V) Displays the version number of emerge. It cannot be used in conjunction with other options.
