Gentoo Portage Related Software

[Gentoo Linux](http://www.gentoo.org) is a versatile Linux meta distribution. In its core is the [Portage](http://www.gentoo-portage.com/) package management system. Every Gentoo users will agree that Portage is what makes Gentoo one of the better Linux distributions. However, there are several packages that could make Portage even better.

**app-portage/basc**

The Gentoo [Buildtime and Statictics](http://www.gentoo-stats.org/) is an attempt to help Gentoo developers in finding out their user base. app-portage/basc is the client software. It tries to gather information about your system and submit them to a central repository. The privacy conscious users will be happy that the client will try not to disclose any sensitive information.

**app-portage/epm**

epm is a command line Portage query tool. Its syntax resembles RPM package manager used in other distributions. It is a must for RPM converts. If you use `rpm -ql glibc` in other distributions to list files in package glibc, then you can do the same under Gentoo with `epm -ql glibc`. Very convenient for users already used to RPM.

**app-portage/esearch**

[esearch](http://david-peter.de/esearch.html) is a replacement for `emerge –search`. The advantage of esearch is that it uses a search index. So searches will be much faster with esearch, especially with older CPUs.

**app-portage/genlop**

The [Gentoo Log Parser](http://pollycoke.org/genlop.html) is a tool to (surprise!) parse Portage’s log file.

**app-portage/gentoolkit**

A collection of administration scripts. The most important script is probably `revdep-rebuild`. This utility will try to collect information about reverse dependency and do an update as needed. This is probably most useful for `emerge –deep` users like myself. For example, sometimes a package loses its dependency when its dependency is upgraded by portage. Gentoolkit will attempt to fix that by recompiling the package in question.

**app-portage/mirrorselect**

Mirrorselect will try to select the best mirrors, and edit /etc/make.conf for you automatically. Every Gentoo user will probably know about this already, because mirrorselect is briefly mentioned in installation guide.

**app-portage/splat**

It is another portage log analyser.

**app-portage/ufed**

Ufed is a USE flag editor. It will provide its user with simple curses based interface to choose which USE flags to use. Ufed will update /etc/make.conf automatically. An excellent time saver! I think this utility is an excellent candidate to make it to the boot CD.