specpath.conf

###PALUDISENVIRONMENTONLY###

Configuration File Locations

Paludis looks in the following places for configuration files:

${PALUDIS_HOME}/.paludis, if the PALUDIS_HOME environment variable is set, or ${HOME}/.paludis otherwise.
${SYSCONFDIR}/paludis, where SYSCONFDIR is /etc on most systems.

If --environment :suffix or --environment paludis:suffix is specified, Paludis will use .paludis-suffix or paludis-suffix. This can be used to maintain multiple configurations, for example for chroots.

specpath.conf

If a file named specpath.conf exists in the configuration directory, Paludis uses this to find a second, real configuration directory. It is a standard key=value configuration file. This file overwrites the key=value sets from the commandline given in --environment(-E). Recognised keys are as follows:

root: The real configuration directory is taken to be ${root}/SYSCONFDIR/paludis/ (note that HOME values are not used). When installing, ${root}/ is used rather than / as the base install location.
config-suffix: If set, Paludis will instead look in ${root}/SYSCONFDIR/paludis-suffix for configuration files. By default, no configuration suffix is used under root.
system_root: If set, Paludis will use this value for the root for resolving dependencies. Defaults to /, and should not be changed except under exceptional circumstances.