On 2025-07-29, Philip Webb wrote:
> 250727 Michael wrote:
>> A hard Block "B" indicates a conflict
>> between what packages/versions you have installed or specified
>> and what portage seeks to install/update.
>> This requires manual intervention by the user to be resolved,
>> typically be editing any user additions in /etc/portage/.
>> A soft block "b" is resolvable by portage alone.
>> Either way, portage will install what you've told it you want on your system
>> and generally will do so quite reliably.
>
> Currently, 'shadow' has an 'U'pdate. Here's what I get when I try :
>
> root:516 ~> emerge -pv shadow
> These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
> Calculating dependencies... done!
> Dependency resolution took 3.78 s (backtrack: 0/20).
>
> [ebuild U ] sys-apps/shadow-4.14.8:0/4::gentoo [4.13-r4:0/4::gentoo]
> USE="acl -audit (-bcrypt%) -cracklib nls pam (-selinux) -skey (split-usr) su*
> (-systemd) -verify-sig xattr" 1765 KiB
> [blocks B ] sys-apps/util-linux[su(-)] ("sys-apps/util-linux[su(-)]"
> is soft blocking sys-apps/shadow-4.14.8)
> [blocks B ] >=sys-apps/shadow-4.7-r2[su]
> (">=sys-apps/shadow-4.7-r2[su]" is soft blocking sys-apps/util-linux-2.41.1)
>
>From these lines, it's somewhat clear that the problem is that only one
of these two packages can have the "su" USE flag set.
This because IIRC both can provide the "su" utility.
If you did not change any USE flags, I guess a quick first step after
this would be to try to update util-linux as well, just in case that's
all it takes.
In case it was you who manually enabled the "su" flag for shadow, you
need to ensure that util-linux has it disabled. And then update both at
the same time (or is that not sufficient to handle this block?).
[...]
> Total: 1 package (1 upgrade), Size of downloads: 1765 KiB
> Conflict: 2 blocks (2 unsatisfied)
[...]
> -- end of Emerge output --
>
> I looked at the Handbook entry cited, but it doesn't help.
> No wonder, when you check the end :
> "This page was last edited on 13 December 2014, at 19:42" !!
That, by itself, is not an indication that it is not suitable.
> Can anyone explain what I'm supposed to make of the output above ?
> How can I successfully update 'shadow', a vital system pkg ?
Well, the -pv output by itself, the list of packages and the block, in
this case appears to be sufficient?
> In case anyone doesn't know, I've been relying on Gentoo since 2003.
> Most of the time, it does a very good job, but it needs some improvements.
>
>>> Today, I encountered a demand for a USE flag '!gnutls' -- NB the '!' :
>>> what does that mean ? 'USE="gnutls"' makes no difference
>>> & there's no explanation of '!' via 'man emerge'.
>> An exclamation mark "!" before an item denotes a negation.
>> You'd normally see this when emerge informs you
>> it cannot emerge a package with the USE flags you have currently specified.
>
> Thanks, 'USE="-gnutls" emerge curl' appears to work.
>
> However, where in Gentoo docs are we told that '!' = '-' ?
I'd guess in the online manual page for the ebuild syntax.
man 5 ebuild
Or, on the Web, possibly in the devmanual or the Package Manager
Specification? (Which are also available for install.)
(Maybe there are better sources to use as a reference, which I've
forgotten about.)
--
Nuno Silva
