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qkeyword
Section: qkeyword (1)Updated: Feb 2026
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NAME
qkeyword - list packages based on keywordsSYNOPSIS
qkeyword [opts] <action> <args>DESCRIPTION
qkeyword allows various searches based on KEYWORDS. Some uses are aimed at Gentoo developers, to allow querying which packages would be available, or are candidate for keywording. By default, the entire tree is traversed. Since this process can be slow, or result in too many results, the match arguments can be used to reduce the set of packages evaluated. -p and -c match package name and category respectively. They can both be used at the same time, but -p accepts regular atom format, including version and/or range. Hence, -p can be used to set both category as well as package in one go. The -m maintainer match, while reducing the resulting set, is likely to slow down the query processing since the metadata.xml file has to be read for each package examined. It is best used in combination with -p or -c. qkeyword uses the keyword found in the configured profile (ARCH) for its queries. This keyword can be overridden by giving the desired keyword as argument. Note that this does not change the profile in use, which most notably can result in incorrect masks being applied for the -T and -S options.OPTIONS
- -p <arg>, --matchpkg <arg>
- match pkgname.
- -c <arg>, --matchcat <arg>
- match catname.
- -m <arg>, --matchmaint <arg>
- match maintainer email from metadata.xml (slow).
- -A, --showarch
- show selected arch from profile configuration.
- -i, --imlate
- list packages that can be marked stable for <arch>.
- -d, --dropped
- list packages that have dropped keywords for <arch>.
- -t, --needsstable
- list packages that have ~arch versions, but no stable versions for <arch>.
- -s, --stats
- display statistics about the portage tree.
- -a, --all
- list packages that have at least one version keyworded for <arch>.
- -n, --not
- list packages that aren't keyworded for <arch>.
- -S, --stable
- list latest stable version per package for <arch>.
- -T, --testing
- list latest testing version per package for <arch>.
- -F <arg>, --format <arg>
- Print latest atom using given format string.
- --root <arg>
- Set the ROOT env var.
- -v, --verbose
- Report full package versions, emit more elaborate output.
- -q, --quiet
- Tighter output; suppress warnings.
- -C, --nocolor
- Don't output color.
- --color
- Force color in output.
- -h, --help
- Print this help and exit.
- -V, --version
- Print version and exit.
RETRIEVING LATEST TESTING VERSION AVAILABLE
To retrieve the latest available version in the ebuild tree marked as testing for the given ARCH, can be done with a combination of flags, mostly to restrict the search. For instance, to find the latest version of sy-devel/gcc available, one could use:
$ qkeyword-p sy-devel/gcc-T sy-devel/gc-8.3.0It may be that there is a newer version available, but masked for the configured profile (via package.mask). Using -v will inform about this scenario happening:
$ qkeyword-p de-vcs/cvs-Tv masked by =de-vcs/cv-1.12.12*: de-vcs/cv-1.12.1-r12Unrelated, but to locate the mask given, use verbose mode on q's mask listing:
$ q-mv de-vcs/cvs =de-vcs/cv-1.12.12* [/repo/gentoo/profiles/prefix/sunos/solaris/package.mask]
REPORTING BUGS
Please report bugs via http://bugs.gentoo.org/Product: Gentoo Linux; Component: Current packages
AUTHORS
Ned Ludd <solar@gentoo.org> Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org> Fabian Groffen <grobian@gentoo.org>
SEE ALSO
q(1), qatom(1), qcheck(1), qdepends(1), qfile(1), qgrep(1), qlist(1), qlop(1), qmanifest(1), qmerge(1), qpkg(1), qsearch(1), qsize(1), qtbz2(1), qtegrity(1), quse(1), qwhich(1), qxpak(1)