What are some useful utils when using Gentoo Linux?

Question

I want to make a list of utilities that come in handy in Gentoo? What tools and commands do you use and consider helpful in administration of a Gentoo system/server?

ok, re-opened. But do try to play like you're on "Jeopardy" -- phrase it in the form of a question! — Jeff Atwood, Jun 15 '09 at 09:19
I think you've swapped the descriptions of "equery" and "eclean". — cd1, Jun 24 '09 at 03:05
I have removed the list from the question to keep it simple and clear. — Flow, Sep 03 '13 at 16:54

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 03 '13 at 17:01

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eclean

Utility for cleaning distfiles and binary packages.
Usage example: eclean distfiles
Usage example output: Cleans out the files in /usr/portage/distfiles. Pretty handy.

eix includes some neat obsolete checks like eix-test-obsolete which checks for bad entries in the /etc/portage/package.* files.

edited Sep 03 '13 at 17:01

Flow

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answered Jun 11 '09 at 19:55

afrosteve

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score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:53

eix-sync

Since eix-test-obsolete was mentioned here, apart from eix itself, I thought I'd write a recommendation. This is the only way I sync my portage nowadays: It performs a sync, updates the eix database and prints out a diff all in one go. I recommend invoking it as eix-sync -C '-q', which suppresses the typically verbose output of emerge --sync.

Package: app-portage/eix, of course :)
q, together with its plugins such as quse, qlop or qsize

Very useful set of portage-related functions, that can give similar information to equery and more. Part of app-portage/portage-utils.
quickpkg

A part of the core sys-apps/portage. Very helpful for building a tarball from an installed package if you want to temporarily downgrade/upgrade it for testing purposes. You get back to the packaged version using the -K (capital "K") switch to emerge. Tip: use quickpackage --include-config=y to include current configuration files in the package.
demerge

Lets you save the current list of installed packages in case you'd later want to revert. Kind of a "system checkpointing" tool.

Package: app-portage/demerge

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:53

3

dispatch-conf for handling modified configuration files.

edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:53

Flow

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answered Jul 22 '09 at 14:44

Ophidian

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score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:50

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rc-update

utility for adding stuff in the boot list, allows different "runlevels" (priorities)
usage example: rc-update -s shows the currectly active boot list
usage example: rc-update add script_from_init_d default

edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:50

Flow

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answered Jun 11 '09 at 20:16

Karolis T.

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score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:51

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I hope everybody uses it nowadays, but eselect is a must. It's pretty much the tool to handle which software version, which binutils, which toolchain, which opengl, which whatever you use.

edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:51

Flow

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answered Jan 29 '10 at 15:03

Trevoke

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score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:50

The portage-utils suite with the q tool and it's many aliases. It gives you much information on things like which files are in a package, what use flags are used, their descriptions and much more. Quite indispensible.

For configuration file updating, my tool of choice is dispatch-conf, which is part of the standard portage install and saves a lot of work updating unchanged config files compared to etc-update.

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:50

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It's been a while since I stopped using Gentoo, but apart from all the utilities already suggested I used to like localepurge. It basically frees up disk space on the system by deleting unnecessary locale files and man pages.

Small use guide.

edited Sep 03 '13 at 16:50

Flow

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answered Jul 22 '09 at 14:41

scetoaux

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What are some useful utils when using Gentoo Linux?

7 Answers7