Re: [gentoo-dev] Undocumented and unused USE variables

Re: [gentoo-dev] Undocumented and unused USE variables

[Christoph Niethammer]

Hello.

I see. There is more documentation on a per package bases wich has to be considered, too. (Found already the metadata.xml files.)

As with the pango USE they may differe in their description - maybe also in their meaning for different packages. So local USE flags should only be used on a per package basis!

Here the euse command is realy handy. :-)
However the sysfs USE flag is still hiding its documentation.
So lets see if this is a bug or a feature. ;-)

Thx for the clarification so far.

Best regards
Christoph

René Neumann <lists@necoro.eu> schrieb:

>> * Undocumented use flags:
>> ----------
>> pango
>
>
>% euse -i pango
>global use flags (searching: pango)
>************************************************************
>no matching entries found
>
>local use flags (searching: pango)
>************************************************************
>[+  D   ] pango
>    app-i18n/fcitx: Enable support for x11-libs/pango
>              3.6.3 [gentoo]
>              3.6.4 [gentoo]
>        [+  ] 4.0.0 [gentoo]
>        [+  ] 4.0.1 [gentoo]
>        [+  ] 4.2.0-r2 [gentoo]
>        [+  ] 4.2.1 [gentoo]
>
>[+  D   ] pango
>    media-gfx/fontforge: Enable pango font rendering
>        [+  ] 20100501 [gentoo]
>        [+  ] 20110222 [gentoo]
>        [+  ] 20110222-r1 [gentoo]
>
>[+  D   ] pango
>    media-gfx/imagemagick: Enable Pango support using x11-libs/pango
>
>[...]
>

Re: [gentoo-dev] Undocumented and unused USE variables

[Rich Freeman]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Christoph Niethammer
<christoph.niethammer@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Here the euse command is realy handy. :-)
> However the sysfs USE flag is still hiding its documentation.
> So lets see if this is a bug or a feature. ;-)

Yup, euse is helpful, or you can grep /usr/portage/profiles/use.*
(including the local version).

I suspect we'll find 3 categories here:

1.  Stuff like amd64 which isn't really a USE flag proper, but which
is required due to how arch support works.  As far as I know amd64 is
the only one in this category.

2.  Stuff like pango which really are documented.

3.  Stuff like sysfs which are neither.  File a bug...  :)

Rich

Re: [gentoo-dev] Undocumented and unused USE variables

[Alec Warner]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 5:49 AM, Christoph Niethammer
<christoph.niethammer@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I see. There is more documentation on a per package bases wich has to be considered, too. (Found already the metadata.xml files.)

The metadata.xml files are  used to generate the use.local.desc file.

>
> As with the pango USE they may differe in their description - maybe also in their meaning for different packages. So local USE flags should only be used on a per package basis!

Usage of flags are not so clear cut as this, so I wouldn't make that
kind of generalization on their use.

>
> Here the euse command is realy handy. :-)
> However the sysfs USE flag is still hiding its documentation.
> So lets see if this is a bug or a feature. ;-)
>
> Thx for the clarification so far.
>
> Best regards
> Christoph
>
> René Neumann <lists@necoro.eu> schrieb:
>
>>> * Undocumented use flags:
>>> ----------
>>> pango
>>
>>
>>% euse -i pango
>>global use flags (searching: pango)
>>************************************************************
>>no matching entries found
>>
>>local use flags (searching: pango)
>>************************************************************
>>[+  D   ] pango
>>    app-i18n/fcitx: Enable support for x11-libs/pango
>>              3.6.3 [gentoo]
>>              3.6.4 [gentoo]
>>        [+  ] 4.0.0 [gentoo]
>>        [+  ] 4.0.1 [gentoo]
>>        [+  ] 4.2.0-r2 [gentoo]
>>        [+  ] 4.2.1 [gentoo]
>>
>>[+  D   ] pango
>>    media-gfx/fontforge: Enable pango font rendering
>>        [+  ] 20100501 [gentoo]
>>        [+  ] 20110222 [gentoo]
>>        [+  ] 20110222-r1 [gentoo]
>>
>>[+  D   ] pango
>>    media-gfx/imagemagick: Enable Pango support using x11-libs/pango
>>
>>[...]
>>

[gentoo-dev] Re: Undocumented and unused USE variables

[Duncan]

Rich Freeman posted on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:01:43 -0400 as excerpted:

> On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Christoph Niethammer
> <christoph.niethammer@googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Here the euse command is realy handy. :-)
>> However the sysfs USE flag is still hiding its documentation.
>> So lets see if this is a bug or a feature. ;-)
> 
> Yup, euse is helpful, or you can grep /usr/portage/profiles/use.*
> (including the local version).

FWIW, there's also equery uses (or just equery u), part of gentoolkit 
along with euse.  But you run equery uses against a specific package, so 
"equery u portage" for instance.  Where USE flags have a package-specific 
meaning, it's printed, and I've come to prefer equery u's output to euse -
i's.

FWIW(2), I'd suggest reading the equery manpage and getting familiar with 
all of its actions.  At least here, I find it QUITE a useful command. =:^)

There's also portage-utils and I believe a few other alternatives.  
Personally, I prefer equery, but I have portage-utils installed, as I'll 
see an occasional post-install message recommending a query using portage-
utils, and it's easier to just have it installed than it is to figure out 
exactly what the query does and translate it to a equery.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman