Re: [gentoo-user] USE flag question (not total newbie)

[Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk>]

> On 29 Nov 2016, at 01:34, Ian Zimmerman <itz@primate.net> wrote:
> 
> What does it mean when a USE flag name ends with '%' ?


From `man emerge`:

    The following symbols are affixed to USE flags in order to
    indicate their status:
   
    Symbol   Location    Meaning
    ──────────────────────────────────────────
   
    -        prefix      not enabled (either disabled or removed)
    *        suffix      transition to or from the enabled state
    %        suffix      newly added or removed                       
    ()       circumfix   forced, masked, or removed                   
    {}       circumfix   state is bound to FEATURES settings   


> After my last --sync, emerge --qvp -u says (among a heap of other output):
> 
> [ebuild   R   ] dev-db/sqlitebrowser-3.8.0  USE="-qt5 {-test} (-qt4%*)" 
> 
> Does this mean the package will be rebuilt without any qt support at
> all?  Why?

No, I believe it means that the _option_ to enable or disable qt4 has been removed.

It could be that the package is always compiled with qt4, or that it's always disabled, or that `make` detects it automatically.

The best things to look at are the ebuild and the changelog.

Stroller.