What does a hash symbol in emerge output mean?

Question

When I run emerge -avuDN world I receive a strange output for my grub package:

[ebuild     U #] sys-boot/grub-1.99-r2 [1.99_rc1] USE="nls%* sdl%* truetype -custom-cflags -debug -device-mapper% -efiemu% -static (-multislot%)" GRUB_PLATFORMS="-coreboot% -efi-32% -efi-64% -emu% -ieee1275% -multiboot% -pc% -qemu% -qemu-mips% -yeeloong%" 2,578 kB

I do not understand the hash symbol.

In my portage configuration I have two entries on grub:

$ grep "grub" *
package.keywords:<sys-boot/grub-9999 **
package.unmask:sys-boot/grub

I don't know why, but removing one of the entries makes portage try to install grub-0.97 in new slot, so I keep both.

I'd be thankful for some explanation on this mysterious hash (and why do I need these two lines in configuration).

Answer 1

Here's a snip from man emerge:

[ebuild U *] sys-apps/portage-2.2.0_alpha6 [2.1.9.25] Portage 2.1.9.25 is installed, but if you run the command, then portage will upgrade to version 2.2.0_alpha6. In this case, the * symbol is displayed, in order to indicate that version 2.2.0_alpha6 is masked by missing keyword. This type of masking display is disabled by the --quiet option if the --verbose option is not enabled simultaneously. The following symbols are used to indicate various types of masking: Symbol Mask Type # package.mask * missing keyword ~ unstable keyword

So the # in your example means that the version of grub it wants to install is masked by package.mask.

Your line: package.unmask:sys-boot/grub is making it install what would otherwise be a masked package.

Your line: package.keywords: <sys-boot/grub-9999 ** is accepting all keywords for grub, in other words you'll take the latest version of grub no matter how stable (or unstable).

I expect that 0.97 is the latest stable version for your architecture, but since I don't have gentoo installed right now and http://gentoo-portage.com/sys-boot/grub seems to be broken I can't check - sorry!