Keep the old sources and possibility to rollback?

midnite · Guru Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 453 Location: Hong Kong

For packages like sys-kernel/gentoo-sources which have slots that allow multiple versions to coexist in a system, we can add different :slots into the @world file in order to keep the "compiled" packages. There are a few inconveniences.

Whenever a new version of sys-kernel/gentoo-sources is emerged, we need to manually add the new slot into the @world file.
For most of the other packages, they do not support slotting. This solution is not possible for them.

As the DISTDIR, /var/cache/distfiles, which contains all the source codes, by default, will not be automatically deleted while emerge --sync or emerge -avuND @world, all the source codes of the previously emerged packages are already available in the system. But we cannot simply compile those old versions because the ebuilds and the dependency information are missing. They are missing because whenever an old ebuild is deleted from the Gentoo repository, it will also be deleted locally during emerge --sync.

It is because the --delete option is in the PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS variable.

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3650

Distfiles remain in cache until you delete them yourself. If you need old ebuilds, you can use gentoo git repo and pull the whole history, and either checkout an older version of the whole tree or just a single directory (or even file). Git even allows you to create multiple, independent workdirs now, so you can checkout old files directly to a different location (maybe even your local overlay), where they will remain until you delete them yourself.

It does look like you're trying to overcomplicate your life, but if you really need it, doing something along those lines might be worth it.
Anyway, don't edit files in the main tree yourself. Use an overlay instead. You can have as many overlays as you want, which makes it easy to pull community-maintained stuff as well.
If you don't know where to start, see eselect-repository.
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midnite · Guru Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 453 Location: Hong Kong

I also feel that I am overcomplicating things too.

Thank you for pointing me to the correct direction.

I need to read these and get used to git.
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Downgrading_a_package_to_removed_version
https://devmanual.gentoo.org/ebuild-maintenance/git/index.html
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- midnite.

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3650

That's a wall of text you _probably_ don't need for what you want to do.
Eselect-repository's main purpose is to make enabling community overlays, but there is also local overlay on the list and it creates a template for your own, private overlay. You _can_ create local overlay completely by yourself, but there's nothing wrong with using a single command that hides the boring complexity from you.

Once done, copy the <cathegory>/<package>/{<ebuild>,<manifest>} from ::gentoo to ::local. Congratulations, you have your first package in your local overlay.

You might want to modify priority of your overlay, or maybe emerge some stuff using extended atom, like category/package::overlay, but I think that's pretty much enough to get you started.
When you get to patching ebuilds or making your own, you'll need ebuild command (already a part of any gentoo system), and I suggest getting familiar with git, though you can live without it most of the time.
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri May 16, 2025 2:24 pm Post subject:

midnite,

There are old squshfs portage snapshots. About a month apart online too, they go back to 2016.
With git, you can get back to 2002, which is when Gentoo started with CVS.

I have all the distfiles I have downloaded since June 2006 too. That's about 800G now.
The last year or so is not there deliberately, as I don't want people to use that as an every day GENTOO_MIRROR.
If you need old sources, help yourself, if they are there.
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