Re: [gentoo-user] USE flags

["Walter Dnes" <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>]

On Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 08:46:21PM -0400, John Dangler wrote
> I have just installed a basic 2005.1 system (2.6.12-r6) on my laptop.  I'm
> trying to get my arms around the USE flags.  I found a set of 'default'
> settings (I think) under /usr/portage/profiles/base/use.defaults .  From
> what I've read in the gentoo documentation, this seems to be a list of
> default USE= flags.  What I'd like to try and get to is, a difference
> between what's there and the 'total' list, and why would I add others to my
> own make.conf file?

  The default settings for X86 machines using 2005.1 is the sum of base,
default-linux, default-linux/x86 and default-linux/x86/2005.1.  It's the
developers' attempt to be all things to all people.  However, one size
does not fit all.  For instance default-linux/x86/make.defaults contains
the statement...

USE="alsa apm arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts crypt cups eds emboss encode fortran
foomaticdb gdbm gif gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 imlib ipv6 jpeg kde
libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mp3 mpeg ncurses nls ogg oggvorbis opengl
oss pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sdl spell ssl tcpd
truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts vorbis X xml2 xmms xv zlib"

  While the KDE and GNOME people make some great *APPLICATIONS* (e.g.
Koffice, Gnumeric, AbiWord, etc) their "desktop environments" are fat,
bloated, resource-hogging, eye-candy that accomplish nothing other than
to make a P4 emulate a PII with half the RAM.  I don't want the "gnome"
or "kde" flags.  That means dumping the "arts" flag, because ARTS
depends on KDE and building ARTS will result in building KDE.  Why is
"oss" in there as a flag, given that OSS is deprecated?

  PAM is a good idea for somebody running a server with multiple
external users accessing it.  IMHO, PAM belongs in the optional security
packages, with hardened linux, and NSA SELinux.  For the average home
desktop, PAM is a PITA.

  The 90%+ of the online world that doesn't use IPV6 can do without the
"ipv6" flag, thank you.  When the "ipv6" flag was introduced, a lot of
people noticed their internet apps would sit there for 90 seconds, time
out IPV6, and then try IPV4 addresses... oops.  To block that, put
"-ipv6" in your USE.

  My approach is to use "-*" which zaps all flags, then specify the ones
*I* want/need.  If a particular package wants/needs a specific flag, hey
that's what /etc/portage/package.use is for.  If enough packages need a
specific flag, I'll think about adding it to my USE variable.  Here's
what I have...

USE="-* a52 aac alsa apm audiofile dio encode exif ffmpeg flac foomatic fortran gb gif gstreamer gtk2 ieee1394 jpeg maildir mikmod mmap mmx mng ncurses offensive ogg opengl plotutil png posix quicktime sdl slang sse sse2 theora threads tiff truetype vorbis win32codecs wmf xv" 

  Your specific needs will differ, depending on what *YOU* run on your
machine.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
My musings on technology and security at http://tech_sec.blog.ca
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