Has anybody built the world from repos instead of tarballs?

bilegeek · n00b Joined: 06 Mar 2025 Posts: 2

Two dimensions to this:

1.) Has anybody stored the full upstream VC repos for every single open-source package on their installation? (Excepting un-VC'd programs like Lynx.) If so, how much space was needed?

2.) Has anybody set up Portage to automatically build from these local repos? (Obviously can't just use all bleeding edge, would need to checkout specific commits, keep them up to date etc.)

From a previous post, I know that in principle, Portage can build from a cloned Git repo[1]. But has anyone gone THIS far?

For #1: I've been haphazardly cloning repos the last few months, and if I had to take similarly haphazard guess at how much they alone would take, a base install would need 25gb while a full desktop with programs would need 200gb to over 1TB, depending on the level of bloat and the sheer number of dependencies I'm not factoring.

[1]https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-8274998.html

DISCLAIMER: I'm not using Gentoo, currently on Debian and longingly gazing at FreeBSD. But if there was anywhere to ask this, it's here.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2025 10:25 pm Post subject:

bilegeek,

The live ebuilds do what you want ... maybe. They use --depth=1e.g., so you don't get a full clone.
If you want a full clone of everything, its much more space.
e.g. At Date: Sat Aug 12 13:28:55 2023 -0700 the kernel was almost 5G.
It will be bigger now.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2025 10:26 pm Post subject:

Moved from Portage & Programming to Gentoo Chat.

It's Gentoo and its Chat, not a support request.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

bilegeek · n00b Joined: 06 Mar 2025 Posts: 2

Whoops, sorry about the post genre.

And of course I skipped over the live ebuild part of the wiki. My eyes only saw the first paragraph of ebuild being a type of config file and moved on. Dangit.

Doesn't seem to be an easy way to translate the version from the Gentoo repo into a specific commit from upstream, hmm. Would put a pure live ebuild system on the very bleeding edge, besides the the depth limitation you mentioned.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2025 11:01 pm Post subject:

bilegeek,

In git, the version is often taken from a tag or branch ... but not always.

Packaging a tarball is a convenience.
Skipping the Gentoo Mirror system is regarded as poor netiquette as it puts more load on the upstream servers.
Gentoo allows avoiding the mirror system but that is usually only used for old packages that have gone from the mirrors.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.