[SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

Leonid.I · 2009-06-04 23:13:11

Recently, I have been trying to understand, in depth, the difference between Gentoo and Arch, besides the fact that the former is source, while the latter if binary based distribution.
A particular question, which emerged is whether it is possible to track and compile updates AUTOMATICALLY with abs/pacman, a la emerge? So far, as it follows from ArchWiki, ABS is Arch's analog of rpmbuild on Red Hat systems, plus automatic sync of the package tree, but whenever updates are to be installed, they will not be compiled, but downloaded as binaries... is that right?

Thanks for the clarification.

Last edited by Leonid.I (2009-09-23 21:46:57)

tomk · 2009-06-04 23:37:30

Yes that's right.

Dieter@be · 2009-06-05 07:43:35

fyi: another important difference is gentoo finds "choice" very importants and provides a quite complicated infrastructure to support this (use flags, slotting, etc). Arch is more about simplicity and only provides basic tools. So if you want to compile packages with different options, you should maintain a separate pkgbuild (and/or use the AUR)

Gen2ly · 2009-06-06 21:17:44

I've seen a script around these forums that you can compile everything from source with ABS can't remember the name but it can be done. If you want fine tooth control of your system be alot easier to use Gentoo then trying to do it with ABS, IMHO. Basically I think the packages here are pretty sane don't I don't too much tinkering.

mike_93 · 2009-06-06 21:22:04

is it called pacbuild or something like that?

schivmeister · 2009-06-06 22:28:46

uhmm there is /usr/bin/makeworld

anyway the primary difference is USE flags. That's the benefit of Gentoo when you're going source from base up. Slotting can be managed somehow or another, as well as all the other "features". Instead of going ahead and making Arch behave like Gentoo, I'd go and make Gentoo behave like Arch if I were you. If you roll your own binaries, maybe you can set up something like a dual-core repo.

Pun intended.

Last edited by schivmeister (2009-06-06 22:32:45)

Leonid.I · 2009-06-07 00:10:58

mike_93 wrote:

is it called pacbuild or something like that?

That's right, I learned it just yesterday, it is called pacbuilder and is available from AUR.

The reason for my question was that I had to install a Linux on a PIII/192MB machine and could not choose between Arch and Gentoo. I am using Arch on my laptop, but I was afraid, that it will be a bit slow on a lower end hardware... However, I just tried it, and it works fine! Pretty fast too, even with Xfce, so there is, indeed, no need in further tinkering the system...

Thanks, everyone, for your replies!

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-04 23:13:11

[SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

#2 2009-06-04 23:37:30

Re: [SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

#3 2009-06-05 07:43:35

Re: [SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

#4 2009-06-06 21:17:44

Re: [SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

#5 2009-06-06 21:22:04

Re: [SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

#6 2009-06-06 22:28:46

Re: [SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

#7 2009-06-07 00:10:58

Re: [SOLVED] Can ABS/pacman be used as Gentoo's portage/emerge?

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