The developers of the Gentoo Linux distribution, originally focused on creating an environment by compiling programs from source code, have announced the launch of a repository for ready-made binary packages. The Portage package manager has supported the installation of binary packages for many years, but until now, binary packages have been provided only selectively — it was assumed that the distribution mainly distributes metadata for builds, allowing users to compile binary packages on one of their systems and use them on other computers.
From now on, the project has begun to officially provide binary builds for download from its servers. At the user's discretion, binary builds can be used in conjunction with packages compiled from source code, combining different types of packages within their system. Direct downloading of binary packages allows for quicker deployment of the distribution on low-powered computers and optimizes the installation process, enabling users to focus on building from source code only the most important components for customization.
For architectures other than amd64 and arm64, builds are limited to basic system components and weekly updates. For amd64 and arm64 systems, binary packages also include user applications, such as packages with LibreOffice, Docker, Xfce, KDE, and GNOME. In total, there are over 20 GB of binary packages available on mirrors, updated daily for the stable branch of Gentoo.
Packages for amd64/x86-64 systems are built with the flags "-march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe," while for arm64/AArch64 systems, the flags are "-O2 -pipe." For the amd64 architecture, package options are available that are built using GCC and Clang, as well as settings for enhanced security and linking with the Musl library instead of Glibc. In case specific CPU optimizations are needed, users can still recompile packages from source code, specifying the desired options.
To sign binary packages with a digital signature, keys previously used for signing stages builds are employed. Signatures are checked only for packages in the GPKG format, which has recently become the default in the project's repositories. Packages in the old XPAK format, which were previously the default, can be installed without verification. To ensure compatibility, support for XPAK has been maintained; therefore, users requiring strict package verification are advised to disable the installation of packages without a digital signature check by setting the FEATURES="binpkg-request-signature" in make.conf.
Source: opennet.ru
