250729 Nuno Silva wrote:
> On 2025-07-29, Philip Webb wrote:
>> 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 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
> & then update both at the same time.
Yes, that's the explanation for the problem.
It comes back that I encountered it before some years ago
& chose to enable 'su' for 'util-linux'.
I've now added lines in 'package.use' to set the flag appropriately
& have successfully updated both pkgs.
However, I continue to believe that Portage could do a better job
in reporting the nature of the problem.
>> 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.
No, but 11 yrs is a very long time in the world of software
& one would expect some improvements in the interim.
>> However, where in Gentoo docs are we told that '!' = '-' ?
> I'd guess in the online manual page for the ebuild syntax : 'man 5 ebuild'.
Yes, it's there on the 1st page, but I wasn't aware of that man file.
When reporting a flag requirement, Portage should say '-x', not '!x'.
Thanks for your careful explanation & to the others who advised similarly.
--
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