How specific is portage?

[darkscot]

Say I want to install an absolute basic system without Gnome or KDE then want to install amaroK. Will portage install just the minimum dependencies required for amaroK? Or will it install all of KDE?

[linuxdevil]

Most likely, KDE does not have much of a Dependency Hell, so it should just install amaroK and requirements. Don't forget, it can run on other systems with a bit of porting, so it probably just depends on Qt, kdebase, kdelibs. However, GNOME apps are different. GNOME often has Dependency Hell, so it's hard to know. But your example, amaroK, you should have no problem !

[voxiac]

Just look on the dependencies:
http://gentoo-portage.com/media-sound/amarok/Dep#ptabs
almost all of them are controlled by USE flags, which means that you can leave them out if you desire.

As for the answer to your general question: "Portage is as specific as the ebuilds you're installing with it"

[darkscot]

Just look on the dependencies:
http://gentoo-portage.com/media-sound/amarok/Dep#ptabs
almost all of them are controlled by USE flags, which means that you can leave them out if you desire.

Thanks for the above, that is a really useful link. It is pretty much as a I suspected though, if you install amaroK you also need the almost the whole of KDE as well.

[rand.a]

Just look on the dependencies:
http://gentoo-portage.com/media-sound/amarok/Dep#ptabs
almost all of them are controlled by USE flags, which means that you can leave them out if you desire.

Thanks for the above, that is a really useful link. It is pretty much as a I suspected though, if you install amaroK you also need the almost the whole of KDE as well.

Not true, just build amarok without the kde useflag. All you will need is kdelibs, and maybe qt, thats all.