emerge

Standard Commands

emerge --sync
emerge -NuDav world
dispatch-conf

Parameters

man emerge

–noreplace

-n

Skips the packages specified on the command-line that have already been installed.

Status

emerge -av: What do the letters in square brackets indicate?

[ebuild   R   ]

N = new, (not yet installed)
S = new, Slot installation (side-by-side versions)
U = updating, (changing versions)
D = downgrade, (Best version seems lower)
R = replacing, (Remerging same version))
F = fetch restricted, (Manual download)
f = fetch restricted, (Already downloaded)
B = blocked by an already installed package

Update

To update your system:

emerge --update world

To update every package on your system:

emerge --update --deep world

User Flags

To see an explanation for the user flags on a package:

First make sure you have installed gentoolkit:

emerge gentoolkit

Then use equery to find the use flags:

equery uses <package name>

Remove

To remove an application (In this example, remove sylpheed):

emerge -Cav sylpheed