genup

Tool to update the Portage(5) tree, all installed packages, and kernel, under Gentoo Linux.

info on this fork

I forked this project from sakaki-/genup as there was an EOL notice and I needed a few features which this usefully old script did not perform. I was able to located another rewrite fork phosphorcube/gentoo-update which is also no longer maintained, incorporated some inspiration from there too.

Notable changes:

• sendmail, depends on system mailer (ie nullmailer) configured
• @live-rebuild
• detect read-only portage tree and overlay (ie NFS portage mount)
• legacy layman support, for those not migrated yet
• git pull of /etc/portage/patches if users maintain a local patch repo there
• auto-(un)mounting of /boot
• set usepkg flag (ie NFS bindir mount)
• genkernel build process if installed and buildkernel is not

I decoupled the script from being dependant on the ebuild configuring emtree and buildkernel. If those optional components are installed on the system, the script will enable and use them.

Description

genup is a utility intended to simplify the process of keeping your Gentoo system up to date. When invoked, it automatically performs the following steps, in order:

• updates Portage tree (and active overlays), and syncs eix(1) (using emaint sync / eix-sync)
• removes any prior emerge(1) resume history (using emaint --fix cleanresume)
• on aarch64, attempts to apply any pending fixups (if desired, by running /etc/cron.weekly/fixup; errors non-fatal)
• ensures Portage(5) itself is up-to-date (using emerge --oneshot --update portage)
• ensures genup itself is up-to-date (restarting if not) (using emerge --oneshot --update genup)
• updates all packages in the @world set (first using emtee(1), if the matching USE flag is set, and then using emerge --deep --with-bdeps=y --changed-use --update @world)
• removes unreferenced packages (using emerge --depclean)
• rebuilds any external modules (such as those for VirtualBox) (using emerge @module-rebuild --exclude '*-bin')
• rebuilds any packages depending on stale libraries (using emerge @preserved-rebuild)
• updates any old perl(1) modules (using perl-cleaner --all)
• resolves clashing config file changes (in interactive mode) (using dispatch-conf)
• upgrades the kernel if possible (to staging, in /boot) (using buildkernel --stage-only)
• removes unreferenced packages (again) (using emerge --depclean)
• fixes missing shared library dependencies (using revdep-rebuild)
• rebuilds any packages depending on stale libraries (again) (using emerge @preserved-rebuild)
• removes any unused source tarballs (if desired) (using eclean --deep distfiles)
• deploys new kernel from staging (if desired and available) (using buildkernel --copy-from-staging)
• updates environment settings (as a precautionary measure) (using env-update)
• updates eix package metadata (using eix-sync -0)
• runs any custom updaters in /etc/genup/updaters.d

The genup utility can be invoked in non-interative (default) or interactive mode (see the --ask option in the manpage). Non-interactive mode is suitable for use in a scripted invocation, for example as part of a nightly cron(8) job.

Installation

genup is best installed (on Gentoo) via its ebuild, I also forked sakaki- ebuild into my oubliette-overlay. Full instructions are provided as part of the Sakaki's EFI Install Guide tutorial, on the Gentoo wiki.