Ebuild

ebuild

Gentoo does not, by default, use binary packages as other package management systems do (like pacman or apt), employing instead a format known as the ebuild. Whereas RPM binaries are precompiled binaries, ebuilds are shell scripts with variables and functions which contain a description of the software, and instructions on how to obtain, configure, compile, and install it, more closely akin to (but more powerful than) the .spec files distributed in SRPMs. The official repository provides over 19,600 ebuilds, the majority of which are distributed by the Gentoo mirrors. New and updated ebuilds can be obtained by synchronizing the local ebuild repositories with the mirrors. This is done by executing the command emaint sync -a. Historically, Gentoo has provided pre-compiled binary packages for many common programs, especially those which are lengthy to compile, such as Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice.org. These are still installed with emerge, just by appending a "-bin" to the package name to instead install the binary version.