[gentoo-user] X USE flag - what does it do?

[gentoo-user] X USE flag - what does it do?

[Alexander Skwar]

Hi!

Quite a number of packages support a X USE flag. The
package that I'm right now looking at is vlc:

[ebuild   R   ] media-video/vlc-0.8.4a  USE="alsa arts cdda dvd esd ffmpeg matroska mp3 mpeg nls nsplugin ogg real vlm vorbis win32codecs wxwindows
xml2 xv -3dfx -X -a52 -aac -aalib -avahi -bidi -corba -daap -debug -dts -dvb -fbcon -flac -ggi -gnutls -hal -httpd -joystick -libcaca -lirc -live -mod
-ncurses -opengl -oss -png -samba -screen -sdl -shout -skins -speex -stream -svg -svga -theora -truetype -v4l -vcd -xinerama -xosd" 0 kB

As you can see, I built vlc with USE=-X. What am I
now missing? When I startup vlc, I still have a X
GUI.

A different example - gnupg:

[ebuild   R   ] app-crypt/gnupg-1.4.2-r3  USE="X caps* ecc* idea* nls readline static* usb zlib -bzip2* -curl* -ldap -smartcard" 21 kB

As you can see here, gnupg is built with the flag X set.
What has been enabled with that?

Also quite a number of libraries support X, like

[I--] [  ] gnome-base/libbonoboui-2.10.1-r1 (0)
[I--] [  ] gnome-base/libgnomecanvas-2.12.0 (0)
[I--] [  ] gnome-base/libgtop-2.12.2 (2)
[I--] [  ] gnome-base/libglade-0.17-r6 (0)

What do all of these do with X? And what would go away
if X were disabled (-X)?

Thanks,

Alexander Skwar
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[gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Simon Kellett]

Alexander Skwar <listen@alexander.skwar.name> writes:

> build   R   ] media-video/vlc-0.8.4a  USE="alsa arts cdda dvd esd ffmpeg matroska mp3 mpeg nls nsplugin ogg real vlm vorbis win32codecs wxwindows
> xml2 xv -3dfx -X -a52 -aac -aalib -avahi -bidi -corba -daap -debug -dts -dvb -fbcon -flac -ggi -gnutls -hal -httpd -joystick -libcaca -lirc -live -mod
> -ncurses -opengl -oss -png -samba -screen -sdl -shout -skins -speex -stream -svg -svga -theora -truetype -v4l -vcd -xinerama -xosd" 0 kB
>
> As you can see, I built vlc with USE=-X. What am I
> now missing? When I startup vlc, I still have a X
> GUI.

Sorry: I can not answer your question, but there is an error in your
reasoning (I think). I assume the output above is from emerge -pv ? If
so then I think it is NOT showing you the flags that *were* used to
emerge the package, but the flags that *will* be used if you do a new
(re)emerge. This will be different, for example, if you changed
something in /etc/portage, or set flags on the command line for the
previous emerge.

-- 
Simon Kellett,        |   Gentoo Linux, Fvwm, Firefox 
Darmstadt, Germany    |              Xemacs, Vm, Gnus

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 20:36:50 +0100, Simon Kellett wrote:

> Sorry: I can not answer your question, but there is an error in your
> reasoning (I think). I assume the output above is from emerge -pv ? If
> so then I think it is NOT showing you the flags that *were* used to
> emerge the package, but the flags that *will* be used if you do a new
> (re)emerge. This will be different, for example, if you changed
> something in /etc/portage, or set flags on the command line for the
> previous emerge.

Any changed flags will have a * after them.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel...
but it was just some sod with a torch bringing me more work!

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Re: [gentoo-user] X USE flag - what does it do?

[Nick Rout]

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 12:12:45 +0100
Alexander Skwar wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> Quite a number of packages support a X USE flag. The
> package that I'm right now looking at is vlc:
> 
> [ebuild   R   ] media-video/vlc-0.8.4a  USE="alsa arts cdda dvd esd ffmpeg matroska mp3 mpeg nls nsplugin ogg real vlm vorbis win32codecs wxwindows
> xml2 xv -3dfx -X -a52 -aac -aalib -avahi -bidi -corba -daap -debug -dts -dvb -fbcon -flac -ggi -gnutls -hal -httpd -joystick -libcaca -lirc -live -mod
> -ncurses -opengl -oss -png -samba -screen -sdl -shout -skins -speex -stream -svg -svga -theora -truetype -v4l -vcd -xinerama -xosd" 0 kB
> 
> As you can see, I built vlc with USE=-X. What am I
> now missing? When I startup vlc, I still have a X
> GUI.

I suspect that something else has dragged in the gui part of glc -
wxwindows IIRC.

> 
> A different example - gnupg:
> 
> [ebuild   R   ] app-crypt/gnupg-1.4.2-r3  USE="X caps* ecc* idea* nls readline static* usb zlib -bzip2* -curl* -ldap -smartcard" 21 kB
> 
> As you can see here, gnupg is built with the flag X set.
> What has been enabled with that?
> 

A global use flag like X has different effects on different packages.
Ususally it affects whether or not an X gui is built. However the only
wat to really tell is to read the ebuild. In this case:

"RDEPEND="!static? (
                ${COMMON_DEPEND}
                X? ( || ( media-gfx/xloadimage media-gfx/xli ) )
        )
        selinux? ( sec-policy/selinux-gnupg )""

This indicates that if the X flag is enabled, there will be a dependency on either media-glx/xloadimage or media-gfx/xli

"econf \
[snip]
                $(use_enable X photo-viewers) \
[snip]

   ${myconf} || die"

This indicates that something called photo-viewers is enabled in gnupg
if the X flag is present. What this does, i don't know (or care) and
will leave it to you to discover. 

> Also quite a number of libraries support X, like
> 
> [I--] [  ] gnome-base/libbonoboui-2.10.1-r1 (0)
> [I--] [  ] gnome-base/libgnomecanvas-2.12.0 (0)
> [I--] [  ] gnome-base/libgtop-2.12.2 (2)
> [I--] [  ] gnome-base/libglade-0.17-r6 (0)
> 
> What do all of these do with X? And what would go away
> if X were disabled (-X)?


See above, look at the ebuilds.

> 
-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>

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[gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Simon Kellett]

Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> writes:

> Any changed flags will have a * after them.

I thought that meant that the option was "auto-selected" for you (eg if
the default for this ebuild is -perl, but you have perl installed it
will change the default to +perl and put a * by it to warn you.

Unfortunately man emerge does not help !!

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Simon Kellett,        |   Gentoo Linux, Fvwm, Firefox 
Darmstadt, Germany    |              Xemacs, Vm, Gnus

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Ryan Tandy]

Simon Kellett wrote:

>Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> writes:
>
>  
>
>>Any changed flags will have a * after them.
>>    
>>
>
>I thought that meant that the option was "auto-selected" for you (eg if
>the default for this ebuild is -perl, but you have perl installed it
>will change the default to +perl and put a * by it to warn you.
>
>Unfortunately man emerge does not help !!
>
>  
>
It used to be that if you had certain packages installed (e.g. perl) 
that provided a USE flag and that flag wasn't explicitly mentioned in 
your make.conf, it would automatically enable that flag for you.  This 
behaviour has been removed in the latest ~x86 portage and should be 
filtering down to stable before long.

* beside a USE flag in emerge -p always means that the state of the flag 
(enabled or disabled) has changed since the package was last installed.  
The state seen in the emerge -p output is how the package *will* be 
installed.
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[gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Harm Geerts]

On Monday 30 January 2006 22:16, Simon Kellett wrote:
> Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> writes:
> > Any changed flags will have a * after them.
>
> I thought that meant that the option was "auto-selected" for you (eg if
> the default for this ebuild is -perl, but you have perl installed it
> will change the default to +perl and put a * by it to warn you.
>
> Unfortunately man emerge does not help !!

man emerge (sys-apps/portage-2.1_pre4-r1)

[ebuild U ] sys-devel/distcc-2.16 [2.13-r1] USE="ipv6* -gtk -qt%"
Here  we  see  that  the  make.conf variable USE affects how this package is 
built.  In this example, ipv6 optional support is enabled and both gtk and qt 
support are disabled.  The asterisk following ipv6 indicates that ipv6 
support  was  disabled  the last time this packages was installed.  The 
percent sign following qt indicates that the qt option has been added to the 
package since it was last installed. 

*Note: Flags that haven't changed since the last install are only displayed 
when you use the --pretend and --verbose  options.

Using the --quiet option will prevent all information from being displayed.
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Mon, 30 Jan 2006 22:16:14 +0100, Simon Kellett wrote:

> > Any changed flags will have a * after them.
> 
> I thought that meant that the option was "auto-selected" for you (eg if
> the default for this ebuild is -perl, but you have perl installed it
> will change the default to +perl and put a * by it to warn you.

No, it means the flag setting changed since the last install. The newer
portage also has a % to show the flag has been added to the ebuild since
the last install.

You are thinking of use.defaults, which appear to have been phased out
for the very latest portage, judging by the number of extra packages with
-flag* that appeared in emerge --newuse world after updating portage. I
had no idea so many of my USE flags had been set by use.defaults rather
than the profile.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

BORG spreadsheet program: Locutus 1-2-3.

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[gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Simon Kellett]

Harm Geerts <harmgeerts@home.nl> writes:

> man emerge (sys-apps/portage-2.1_pre4-r1)
>
> build U ] sys-devel/distcc-2.16 [2.13-r1] USE="ipv6* -gtk -qt%"
> Here  we  see  that  the  make.conf variable USE affects how this package is 
> built.  In this example, ipv6 optional support is enabled and both gtk and qt 
> support are disabled.  The asterisk...

Yep: I stand corrected. I missed this paragraph when I searched for it
last night !! I can see it now !

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Darmstadt, Germany    |              Xemacs, Vm, Gnus

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: X USE flag - what does it do?

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 10:54:27PM +0000, Neil Bothwick wrote

> No, it means the flag setting changed since the last install. The newer
> portage also has a % to show the flag has been added to the ebuild since
> the last install.
> 
> You are thinking of use.defaults, which appear to have been phased out
> for the very latest portage, judging by the number of extra packages with
> -flag* that appeared in emerge --newuse world after updating portage. I
> had no idea so many of my USE flags had been set by use.defaults rather
> than the profile.

  I found out... the hard way... with ipv6 quite some time ago.  Note
the first entry in my USE variable...

USE="-* 3dnow X a52 aac alsa bzip2 cdr dga dio divx4linux dri dvd dvdr dvdread encode exif ffmpeg flac fortran gb gif gtk2 imlib jpeg maildir mikmod mime mmap mmx mng mp3 mpeg ncurses nptl nptlonly nsplugin offensive ogg opengl plotutils png posix quicktime readline sdl sharedmem slang sockets sse theora threads tiff truetype vcd vorbis win32codecs wmf xpm xv zlib"

  Gentoo is about control, and I want full control over the optional
stuff.  The only booby-trap I ran into is that I have to include...

app-text/xpdf motif

...in /etc/portage/package.use.  xpdf builds just the libs, *BUT NO XPDF
EXECUTABLE*, if you don't have the "motif" flag somewhere.  Sometimes,
you have no choice, but to invoke package.use, because different apps
function best in your environment with a different setting.  E.g...

  - with X support compiled in, and DISPLAY set, mc sits and spins its
    wheels for several seconds when launched in a real text console.
    But sdl and various other apps don't do what I want them to do if
    not built with X support.

  - building all apps with the "static" flag is not normally practical.
    However, you want busybox to run standalone as a rescue facility,
    even if some libs are screwed up.  It makes sense, to build busybox
    with "static".  I argue that it's foolhardy not to do so.

  If I find that most apps need a flag (e.g. "X") I enable it generally
in /etc/make.conf, and disable it in /etc/portage/package.use for the
few packages that don't like it.  If a flag is required for only 1 or 2
apps, I go the other way.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
My musings on technology and security at http://tech_sec.blog.ca
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