layman

The main portage tree provides you with high quality ebuilds + that are all maintained by Gentoo developers. This will not + be the case for most of the overlays you can get by using + layman. Thus you are removing the + security shield that the standard tree provides for + you. You should keep that in mind when installing ebuilds + from an overlay. +

To ensure the security of your system you MUST read the + source of the ebuild you are about to install. +

Options

Actions

List of possible layman actions.

-f, --fetch: Fetches the remote list of overlays. You will + usually NOT need to explicitly specify this option. The + fetch operation will be performed automatically once you + run the sync, sync-all, or list action. You can prevent + this automatic fetching using the --nofetch option.
-a overlay, --add overlay: Add the given overlay from the cached remote list to + your locally installed overlays. Specify "ALL" to add + all overlays from the remote list.
-d overlay, --delete overlay: Remove the given overlay from your locally installed + overlays. Specify "ALL" to remove all overlays
-s overlay, --sync overlay: Update the specified overlay. Use "ALL" as + parameter to synchronize all overlays
-i overlay, --info overlay: Display all available information about the specified overlay.
-S, --sync-all: Update all overlays. Shortcut for -s ALL.
-L, --list: List the contents of the remote list.
-l, --list-local: List the locally installed overlays.

Other options

List of other available layman options.

-c path, --config path: Path to an alternative configuration file.
-o url, --overlays url: Specifies the location of additional overlay + lists. You can use this flag several times and the + specified URLs will get temporarily appended to the list + of URLs you specified in your config file. You may also + specify local file URLs by prepending the path with + file://. This option + will only append the URL for this specific layman run - + edit your config file to add a URL permanently. So this + is useful for testing purposes. +
-n, --nofetch: Prevents layman from + automatically fetching the remote lists of overlays. The + default behavior for layman is to + update all remote lists if you run the sync, list or + fetch operation.
-k, --nocheck: Prevents layman from checking + the remote lists of overlays for complete overlay + definitions. The default behavior for layman is to + reject overlays that do not provide a description or a + contact attribute.
-q, --quiet: Makes layman completely quiet. + This option is dangerous: If the processes spawned by + layman when adding or synchronizing overlays require + any input layman will hang without telling you + why. This might happen for example if your overlay + resides in subversion and the SSL certificate of + the server needs acceptance.
-v, --verbose: Makes layman more verbose and + you will receive a description of the overlays you can + download.
-N, --nocolor: Remove color codes from the layman + output.
-QLEVEL, --quietnessLEVEL: Makes layman less verbose. + Choose a value between 0 and 4 with 0 being completely + quiet. Once you set this below 3, the same warning as + given for --quiet applies.
-pLEVEL, --priorityLEVEL: Use this option in combination with + the --add. It will modify the + priority of the added overlay and thus influence the + order of entries in the make.conf file. The lower the + priority, the earlier in the list the entry will be + mentioned. Use a value between 0 and 100. The default + value is 50.

Configuration

layman reads configuration parameters + from the file + /etc/layman/layman.cfg by + default. This file provides seven possible settings.

storage: Directory that will be used to store the overlays + and all additional data layman + needs. The default is + /usr/portage/local/layman. layman + uses a location within the /usr/portage hierarchy instead + of /var in order to + store its data. This decision has been made to support + network file systems. If you have your portage tree on nfs + or a similar file system and several machines access the + same ebuild repository over the net it will be necessary + to also provide all necessary layman + data within the hierarchy of the tree. This way the + overlays will also have to be synced at one location + only.
cache: layman will store the downloaded + global list of overlays here. The default is + %(storage)s/cache.xml.
overlays: layman will store the list of + installed overlays here. The default is + %(storage)s/overlays.xml.
make.conf: This is the portage configuration file that + layman will modify in order to make + the new overlays available within portage. The default + is %(storage)s/make.conf. You could + also specify /etc/make.conf + directly. But that would mean that you have + an external program trying to automatically set + variables within this very central configuration + file. Since I consider that dangerous I prefer having a + very small external file that only contains the setting + for PORTAGE_OVERLAYS. This file is then sourced at the + end of /etc/make.conf. This is the + reason why layman suggests running + "echo "source + /usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf" >> + /etc/make.conf" after it has been + installed.
overlays: Specifies the URL for the remote list of all + available overlays. The default is + http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/overlays/layman-global.txt. You + can specify several URLs here (one per line). The + contents will get merged to a single list of + overlays. This allows to add a personal collection of + overlays that are not present in the global list.
proxy: Specify your proxy in case you have to use + one.
nocheck: Set to "yes" if layman should stop + worrying about overlays with missing a contact address or + the description.

Handling overlays

layman intends to provide easy + maintenance of Gentoo overlays while not requiring any + configuration. +

Overlay lists

layman allows you to fetch an + overlay without the need to modify any configuration + files. In order for this to be possible the script needs an + external list of possible overlay sources. There is a + centralized list available at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/overlays/layman-global.txt + but nothing will prevent you from using or publishing your + own list of overlays. The location of the remote lists can + also be modified using the --overlays + option when running layman. +

To get a new overlay added to the central list provided + for layman, send a mail to + <overlays@gentoo.org>. Gentoo developers may + add their overlay entries directly into the list which can + be accessed over the CVS repository for the Gentoo + website. +

You can also use several lists at the same time. Just + add one URL per line to the overlays variable in your + configuration file. layman will merge the + contents of all lists. +

layman also allows you to define + local files in this list. Just make sure you prepend these + path names in standard URL notation + with file://. +

If you need to use a proxy for access to the Internet, + you can use the corresponding variable in + the layman configuration file. Layman + will also respect the http_proxy + environment variable in case you set it. +

Local cache

layman stores a local copy of the + fetched remote list. It will be stored in + /usr/portage/local/layman/cache.xml + by default. There exists only one such cache file and it + will be overwritten every time you + run layman. +

Handling `/etc/make.conf`

Since layman is designed to + automatically handle the inclusion of overlays into your + system it needs to be able to modify + the PORTDIR_OVERLAY variable in your + /etc/make.conf file. But + /etc/make.conf is a very central and + essential configuration file for a Gentoo + system. Automatically modifying this file would be + somewhat dangerous. You can + allow layman to do this by setting + the make_conf variable in the + configuration file to /etc/make.conf. +

A much safer and in fact recommended solution to the + problem is to let layman handle an + external file that only contains + the PORTDIR_OVERLAY variable and is + sourced within the + standard /etc/make.conf file. Just add the following line to the end of your + /etc/make.conf file: +

source /usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf

/usr/portage/local/layman/make.conf + is the default provided in the layman + configuration. Change this file name in case you decide to + store it somewhere else. +

The file does not necessarily need to exist at the + beginning. If it is missing, layman will create it for you. +

There is also no need to remove the + original PORTDIR_OVERLAY variable from + the make.conf file. Layman will simply add new overlays to + this variable and all your old entries will remain in there. +

Adding, removing and updating overlays

Once a remote list of overlays has been fetched, + layman allows to add overlays from the + remote list to your system. The script will try to fetch + the overlay. If this is successful the overlay information + will be copied from the cache to the list of locally + installed overlays. In addition + layman will modify the + PORTDIR_OVERLAY variable to include the + new overlay path. +

Removing the overlay with layman will + delete the overlay without leaving any traces behind. +

In order to update all overlays managed by + layman you can run the script with the + --sync ALL option or + the --sync-all flag. +

List overlays

layman provides the + --list and --list-local + options to print a list of available respectively + installed overlays. +

Listing will prepend all fully supported overlays + with a green asterisk, all non-official overlays with a + yellow asterisk and all overlays that you will not be able + to use since you do not have the necessary tools installed + with a red asterisk. +

In the default mode layman will be strict about + listing overlays and only present you with overlays that + are fully supported. In addition it will complain about + overlays that are missing a description field or a contact + attribute. This type of behavior has been added with + layman-1.0.7 and if you'd like to return to the old + behavior you may use the k option flag or set the nocheck + option in the configuration file. +

Searching ebuilds in overlays

+ You can search through the ebuilds available in the + overlays on http://overlays.gentoo.org by + using "eix". Emerge the package and run + update-eix-remote update. +

Overlay types

Currently layman supports overlays that + are exported via rsync, + subversion, bzr, + darcs, git, + mercurial or provided + as tar packages. +

Overlay lists

Overlay list format

+ Layman uses a central list of overlays in XML format. The file looks like this: +

Example 1. An example overlay.xml file

+	      <?xml version="1.0" ?>
+	      <layman>
+	      <overlays>
+	      <overlay
+	      type = "svn"
+	      src  = "https://mydomain.net/svn/myoverlay/"
+	      contact = "me@mydomain.net"
+	      name = "myoverlay">
+	      
+	      <link>
+	      http://mydomain.net/myoverlay
+	      </link>
+	      
+	      <description>
+	      Contains some of my ebuilds.
+	      </description>
+	      </overlay>
+	      </overlays>
+

Adding an overlay locally

+ Simply create an overlay list in the format described + above and run layman with the + -o switch. You need to + prepend local file URLs with + file://. +

Adding an overlay globally

+ The global list of overlays used by + layman lies at + http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/overlays/layman-global.txt. +

+ All Gentoo developers have access to this location via CVS + and can modify the list of overlays. +

+ If you are not a Gentoo developer but wish to get your + overlay listed you should contact the Gentoo Overlays team + at <overlays@gentoo.org>. You can also join + #gentoo-overlays on + irc.freenode.net. +

Examples

Installing an overlay

layman -f -a wrobel

This would add the overlay with the id + wrobel to your list of installed + overlays.

Syncing your overlays

layman -s ALL

This updates all overlays

Performing several actions at the same time

layman -f -a wrobel -a webapps-experimental

This fetches the remote list and immediately adds two + overlays

Files

/etc/layman/layman.cfg: Configuration file, holding the defaults for + layman

Reporting bugs

+ Please report bugs you might find at http://bugs.gentoo.org +

layman

Gunnar Wrobel

Overview

External links

Reference

Name

Synopsis

Description

WARNING

Options

Actions

Other options

Configuration

Handling overlays

Overlay lists

Local cache

Handling /etc/make.conf

Adding, removing and updating overlays

List overlays

Searching ebuilds in overlays

Overlay types

Overlay lists

Overlay list format

Adding an overlay locally

Adding an overlay globally

Examples

Installing an overlay

Syncing your overlays

Performing several actions at the same time

Files

Reporting bugs

Handling `/etc/make.conf`