On Thu, Jan 26, 2017 at 10:33:14PM -0500, Mike Gilbert wrote:
> I recently ran into a REQUIRED_USE constraint that required I select
> between berkdb and gdbm for an email client.
 
This has now hit stable and is affecting me because I can't upgrade the
email client without putting something in package.use.

> Looking through our profiles, I see we have both berkdb and gdbm
> enabled "globally".
> 
> default/linux/make.defaults:USE="berkdb crypt ipv6 ncurses nls pam
> readline ssl tcpd zlib"
> releases/make.defaults:USE="acl gdbm nptl unicode"
> 
> Is there any reason to have these USE flags enabled globally?
> 
> These USE seem pretty package-specific in scope. On my system, they
> are used by around a dozen of 1000+ installed packages. I think it
> might make sense to migrate them to appropriate IUSE defaults, or
> leave them disabled where they do not provide critical functionality.

I'm with floppym on this one. Is there a specific reason we enable them
globally?

Since there has been so little discussion on this thread, I will start
looking at what I need to do to remove these use flags from the
profiles.

Thanks,

William