$ emerge --metadata
skipping sync

>>> Updating Portage cache:   81%Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/emerge", line 2721, in ?
    mymatches = portage.db["/"]["porttree"].dbapi.xmatch("match-all", cp)
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 5542, in xmatch
    myval=match_from_list(mydep,self.cp_list(mykey))
  File "/usr/lib/portage/pym/portage.py", line 4079, in match_from_list
    raise KeyError, "Specific key requires an operator (%s) (try adding an '=')" % (mydep)
KeyError: "Specific key requires an operator (profiles/default-alpha-1.4) (try adding an '=')"

$ cat metadata/timestamp.chk
Fri, 05 Aug 2005 05:20:01 +0000

$ readlink /etc/make.profile
../usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/2005.0