Installing the sabayon custom /etc stuff in portage profile.

[voxiac]

Not sure you understood what I was trying to explain.
This is how it works now:
* They add something to /etc/portage/package.mask
* I want to undo it so I just delete it
* Gentoo devs will take care of masking potentially dangerous versions

This is how it will work with that stuff in the profile:
* They add something to /usr/portage/local/sabayon/profiles/sabayon3.4/package.mask
* I want to undo it but now I can't delete it there
* So I have to add to my /etc/portage/package.unmask <--- this is me tweaking their tweaks
* The entry I add to /etc/portage/package.unmask has to be version specific
* I have to update it every time new package comes out by looking whether Gentoo devs did masked new versions or not.

And yeah, you're completely right: the profile does provide a basis for your system. If you put all that stuff which is currently in /etc/portage/package.* of default Sabayon installation you have a fully tweaked system and not a basis.
You can't compare it to gentoo profiles really because they do in fact contain bare minimum. This is not the case with what you suggest.

And... I run amd64 tree (yes, stable)

[sprig]

Well, what I can answer to that is that if you specifically want to to unmask a specific package, it means you are interested enough in it to follow it anyway...
I would also not call putting a mask in the profile a 'tweak' - after all, you wouldn't call the stuff which is normally put in gentoo profiles 'tweaks' - would you?

Aside from that, I think that packages should be masked in the profile in pretty extreme cases anyway, such as 2efsprogs maybe (ext4), or stuff that really messes up the system. some things can also be put in etc if necessary - but Imho package masking should be used very sparingly anyway.

You did bring up a good point though and it needs more thought.

[voxiac]

I would also not call putting a mask in the profile a 'tweak' - after all, you wouldn't call the stuff which is normally put in gentoo profiles 'tweaks' - would you?

E.g. 2007 profile I'm running does contain a tiny 'make.defaults' which can't be called a tweak. What I'm calling tweaks is those package.* files.
Gentoo has profiles/package.mask, Sabayon has a local/layman/sabayon/profiles/package.mask. These two are updated regularly and designed for cases like you've described:

Aside from that, I think that packages should be masked in the profile in pretty extreme cases anyway, such as 2efsprogs maybe (ext4), or stuff that really messes up the system.

To get more specific let's look at the /etc/portage/package.mask with shipped with Sabayon x86-64 mini edition:

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>=sys-apps/groff-1.19
>=media-gfx/gimp-print-5.0.0_rc1
>=media-libs/libdc1394-2.0.0_pre1
>=dev-libs/expat-2.0.0
=media-libs/tunepimp-9999
<=sys-apps/dbus-0.62-r2
=sys-apps/pciutils-2.2.4
>=net-p2p/ktorrent-2.1_beta1
>=dev-libs/g-wrap-1.9.7
>=dev-scheme/slib-3.1.4
=kde-base/kpilot-3.5.6
>=net-print/hplip-1.6.11
>sys-kernel/genkernel-3.4.7-r99
=dev-util/kdevelop-3.3.6
~app-misc/lirc-0.8.1
>app-emulation/kvm-12
=kde-base/kicker-3.5.6-r90
=kde-base/kicker-3.5.6-r91
=kde-base/kicker-3.5.6-r92
=kde-base/kicker-3.5.6-r93
=sys-fs/cryptsetup-luks-1.0.4-r2

This is too polluted with various tweaks to go in a profile IMHO. By polluted I mean this entry for instance:

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>=net-p2p/ktorrent-2.1_beta1

What's wrong with it is that ATM ktorrent-2.1.3 is marked stable but it'll be unavailable for users with this thing in a profile without a voodoo dance I described.

But this inconveniences are not necessarily limited to package.mask. Let's take another case:
Default package.keywords from a default Sabayon installation of the same version contains:

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www-client/mozilla-firefox xforms mozbranding filepicker -linguas_en_GB -linguas_es_AR -linguas_es_ES -linguas_fy -linguas_fy_NL -linguas_ga -linguas_ga_IE -linguas_gu_IN -linguas_ka -linguas_ku -linguas_nb -linguas_nb_NO -linguas_nn -linguas_nn_NO -pa_IN -linguas_pl -linguas_pt -linguas_pt_BR -linguas_pt_PT -linguas_sv_SE -linguas_zh_CN -linguas_zh_TW

(I have no idea why those -linguas* are there - maybe there's a reason but I just can't see it)
So imagine that I wanted to localize my Sabayon installation and set one of those LINGUAS which is being explicitly turned off here. After emerge -pv mozilla-firefox I'll of course still see that it's turned off... I would be hard enough to think of looking in /etc/portage/package.use to check for a line like this one but to go to /usr/portage/local/layman/sabayon/profiles/sabayon3.3/package.use would be beyond me. And when you find it you'll have to add:

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www-client/mozilla-firefox linguas_<lang>_<country>

to /etc/portage/package.use to counter that. Not that hard but still...

What I'm saying is that if we are to have a sabayon profile it needs to have more sane package.* files than these.