Portage on SGI/IRIX?

[srcshelton]

Even though IRIX' SoftwareManager is great as a package manager, it'd be fantastic to be able to use Portage as a secondary package manager to handle source builds.

(Using MIPSpro rather than GCC most likely - so it'd be the Portage infrastructure that is used, rather than the existing ebuilds)

I've been reading the Portage/Solaris thread and the problem seems to be whether, by setting ROOT or another means, Portage can be configured never to touch anything in the filesystem root. For example, if Portage is installed into /opt/portage, then it shouldn't need files in /usr/lib/portage - almost as if chrooted. Since access to the compilers are still required, though, chroot installation isn't an ideal solution.

Can Portage now be installed entirely below a specified root directory? I see that the latest ebuild for Portage (2.0.51.22-r2) still installs files into /usr/lib/... and its binaries contain hard-coded paths (/usr/bin, /usr/sbin, etc.)

Having said this, I have managed so far to install Portage into a chroot as proof of concept, and "emerge info" and "emerge sync" worked after only a little prodding...

(Admittedly this is a *long* way from being usable, but it's a start)

[Redhatter]

Hi,

Just so you don't think this thread's being totally ignored... How's the port going?
I'd be interested to keep track of how Gentoo/IRIX is going. I'd suggest not talking about it too loudly on the Nekochan forums though, some of the people there don't think all that highly of Linux, or it's distributions.

Do let us know how it goes. I don't have any IRIX boxes anymore (my Indy came with Irix 6.5??, but was missing half the goodies, like device drivers for vino, and mipspro), but if I were ever to acquire a full copy (all I have are the Foundation CDs for 6.5.13), and a suitable machine to put it on, I'd certainly be interested in giving it a try.

Depending on what the hard coded paths are pointing to, you might be able to get away with it. I doubt there's much chance of it clobbering IRIX files, just set the ROOT var to someplace appropriate, and Portage should oblige; if not initially, certainly it should do so once you emerge it into the new environment. Then you should be able to remove the old version of portage.

The portage devs in #gentoo-portage would be your authority though... a lot of how portage works is still black magic to me (although slowly, I'm beginning to understand more on its internals).

As I say, do keep us posted on your progress.
Regards,
_________________
Stuart Longland (a.k.a Redhatter, VK4MSL)
I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere...

Gentoo/MIPS Cobalt developer, Mozilla herd member.