On Wednesday, 30 July 2025 09:50:31 British Summer Time Philip Webb wrote: > 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
The suffix "*" to your USE flag "su" above indicates a change of this flag
from a previous emerged state with it being disabled. This is the default
here:
============================
~ $ equery u sys-apps/shadow
[ Legend : U - final flag setting for installation]
[ : I - package is installed with flag ]
[ Colors : set, unset ]
* Found these USE flags for sys-apps/shadow-4.14.8:
U I
+ + acl : Add support for Access Control Lists
- - audit : Enable support for Linux audit subsystem using sys-process/
audit
- - cracklib : Support for cracklib strong password checking
+ + nls : Add Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale
utilities)
+ + pam : Add support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) -
DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip
- - skey : Enable S/Key (Single use password) authentication support
- - su : build the su program
- - systemd : Enable use of systemd-specific libraries and features like
socket activation or session tracking
- - verify-sig : Verify upstream signatures on distfiles
+ + xattr : Add support for extended attributes (filesystem-stored
metadata)
================
> >> 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)>
The above output explains the clash caused by the USE flag "su" being enabled
on both packages.
> > 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.
You /should/ find the problem goes away if you let portage decide on this
occasion, by removing manual edits about the "su" USE flag on both of these
packages in /etc/portage/package.use/.
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