Peter Humphrey wrote: > On Wednesday, 30 July 2025 14:55:55 British Summer Time Dale wrote: > >> ... I tried using sets. All it did was create >> more work. If I have something installed here, I use it, sometimes a >> LOT. Therefore, I want them all to be as up to date as is available. I >> found that even when I did have sets, the sets were in the world file >> and being updated anyway. No real point in that when just putting for >> example, kicad-meta, in the world file and skipping the sets. Some may >> like it. I've read of people using and liking how it works. For me >> tho, it was just more work. So, some of us long term users do just fine >> without sets. :-D > On the other hand, I find life easier with everything in sets. I passed > through > a phase when I was reinstalling systems rather too often, and rather than sit > here for hours doing piecemeal installations, it was much easier to start a > set emerging and go and do something else while it got on with it. > > I sometimes install something to see if I like it, and it goes into @world. > If > I decide to keep it, it comes out of world and into a suitable set; otherwise > I uninstall it. My world file is therefore usually empty, but now you've > prompted me to check it and I see a few things in there that I thought I'd > uninstalled. So, thanks for the reminder! > > Of course, now that my system is stable, more-or-less, I could revert to the > usual way of working, but then I'd have some work to do. It could be done in > a > few commands; the harder part would be my having to mend my ways. :-) > > In case anyone's interested, this is my standard set of sets, in order of > installation: > > $ ls -1 /etc/portage/sets # arranged by hand > core > base > apps > xorg > plasma > utils > > @core includes linux-firmware and gentoo-sources, which several @base > packages > require to have been installed. > > Many other schemes could be used, I'm sure, but mine is here for historical > reasons; not hysterical, these days :-) >
This is like a lot of other things in life. Sometimes it depends on the situation. You take the devs that are always making changes to ebuilds, testing, making more changes and testing some more before it hits the tree. I'm sure they have a lot of unique ways of testing, updating and likely even installing packages. I suspect some use sets, some may not. Some may have one process while others are completely different. They do things in a way that works for them and gives them the best results. For me and my simplistic and consistent way of updating, sets just makes more work and doesn't gain me anything. If sets work for you, and others, by all means use them. It just doesn't work for me. When I sync and do my updates, I want emerge to update everything at once if possible. I run one update command and it's done. I'm also sure for some, including me, we do things the way we do because that's how we have done it for a long time. If it's working, don't mess with it. LOL :-D Dale :-) :-) P. S. I picked okra this morning. Got almost two ice cream buckets full. :-D
