Besides eix --world and eix --system, you can actually use emerge to list the packages along with compilation flags:


$ emerge --info @system
[snip]

app-shells/bash-4.2_p45 was built with the following:
USE="examples net plugins (readline) -afs -bashlogger -mem-scramble -nls -vanilla"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-rpath,/usr/lib64/bash"

[snip]

But I think eix is much better, speedier and cleaner, only it doesn’t have information like CFLAGS or LDFLAGS:


$ eix --system --verbose
[snip]

* app-shells/bash
     Available versions:
     (3.1)  3.1_p17
     (3.2)  3.2_p51
     (4.0)  4.0_p38
     (4.1)  4.1_p11
     (0)    4.2_p37 ~4.2_p39 ~4.2_p39-r1 ~4.2_p42 4.2_p45
     IUSE (all versions): afs bashlogger examples mem-scramble +net nls plugins +readline vanilla
     Installed versions:  Version:   4.2_p45
                          Date:      05:27:07 AM 05/06/2013
                          USE:       examples net plugins readline -afs -bashlogger -mem-scramble -nls -vanilla
                          DEPEND:    >=sys-libs/ncurses-5.2-r2 >=sys-libs/readline-6.2 virtual/yacc
                          RDEPEND:   >=sys-libs/ncurses-5.2-r2 >=sys-libs/readline-6.2 !<sys-apps/portage-2.1.6.7_p1 !<sys-apps/paludis-0.26.0_alpha5
     Best versions/slot:  3.1_p17(3.1) 3.2_p51(3.2) 4.0_p38(4.0) 4.1_p11(4.1) 4.2_p45
     Package sets:        system
     Homepage:            http://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/bash/bashtop.html
     Find open bugs:      http://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=app-shells%2Fbash
     Description:         The standard GNU Bourne again shell
     License:             GPL-3

[snip]

There are more than just @world and @system sets, you can list all using:


$ emerge --list-sets
downgrade
installed
live-rebuild
module-rebuild
preserved-rebuild
rebuilt-binaries
security
selected
system
unavailable
unavailable-binaries
world
x11-module-rebuild

It’s indeed has @installed but it says that set has been deprecated, eix -I is much faster anyway.

About three years ago, I wrote about listing system set packages. Now going back to look at my post, it’s quite silly. Quote-unquote: “Such a noobie!”

Realizing that I am way off rail from this point on…

Next April, I will be a 5-year Gentoo user, whose Larry the Cow has been mooing loud and healthy, not a single broken bone, aka. re-installation, does that mean something? One day, I’d be like this guy, 10 years without a brokenage, changes included motherboards and fundamental file systems. That’s a real achievement.

This 10-year story also hints me that hardware update might be necessary, especially if kernel drops the support. Yes, older kernels at the time might still be included in other sys-kernel packages, but let’s face it, the dependencies required by other packages might pull recent kernels.

Sometimes, I do think we are wasteful species. Things still run well, but you are forced to get new stuff. Where are the vintage car lovers—who actually drive the cars—for technologies? People buy new phones, new laptops, new tablets, new everything, every year when the device still ain’t getting enough coffee stains.

When and how have we gone to being in such awful state?