Version specifier
This is a reference for specifying versions of packages as used when interacting with Portage via emerge or /etc/portage. These are also known as "DEPEND atoms" in Portage documentation.
For the ebuild development perspective, see the Gentoo Development Guide.
Basic
category/package
Matches any version of a package.
matches: gtk+-1.2.10-r12
matches: gtk+-2.24.7
matches: gtk+-3.0.12-r1
By Version
~category/package-1.23
Matches version and any revision.
matches: gdb-7.3
matches: gdb-7.3-r1
does not match: gdb-7.3.1
=category/package-1.23*
Matches a version by the version range. Note that there's no "." before the "*".
matches: gdb-7.3
matches: gdb-7.3-r1
matches: gdb-7.3.1
Please note that
sys-devel/gdb-7.3*
, for example, would also match sys-devel/gdb-7.30
(if that actually existed). Also, you cannot avoid this by trying with sys-devel/gdb-7.3.*
because 7.3.
(with a trailing dot) is not a valid version number.=category/package-1.23
Matches a version exactly.
matches: firefox-7.0
does not match: firefox-7.0-r1
does not match: firefox-7.0.1
>=category/package-1.23
Matches the specified version or any higher version.
matches: python-2.7
matches: python-2.7.1-r1
matches: python-3.2.2
>category/package-1.23
Matches a version strictly later than specified.
matches: python-2.7-r1
matches: python-2.7.1
matches: python-3.2.2
does not match: python-2.7
<category/package-1.23
Matches a version strictly older than specified.
matches: dev-python/beautifulsoup-3.1.0.1-r1
does not match: dev-python/beautifulsoup-3.2.0
<=category/package-1.23
Matches the specified version or any older version.
matches: udev-171
matches: udev-164-r2
does not match: udev-171-r1
By SLOT
category/package:2
Matches package in the specified package SLOT. Note that there is no prefix.
matches: sqlite-2.8.16-r5
does not match: sqlite-3.7.8
By ebuild repository
category/package::repository
Matches a package from a specific ebuild repository. This can be combined with other specifiers. The official Gentoo repository is ::gentoo.
matches: mesa version 9999 from the x11 overlay
does not match: any version from a different overlay.
See also
Portage — the official package manager and distribution system for Gentoo.