On Thursday 18 March 2010 19:55:14 Dale wrote:
> James wrote:
> > Dale<rdalek1967<at>  gmail.com>  writes:
> >> [ebuild   R   ] net-print/cups-1.3.11-r1  USE="X acl avahi dbus gnutls
> >> java jpeg ldap pam perl png ppds python ssl tiff zeroconf -kerberos -php
> >> -samba -slp -static -xinetd" LINGUAS="en -de -es -et -fr -he -id -it -ja
> >> -pl -sv -zh_TW" 0 kB
> >
> > I could not help but notice the avahi and zeroconf flags. I do not
> > see them. Do I have to install mono-zeroconf and avahi to see those
> > flags?
> >
> >
> > Do you find them useful? What applications are using avahi/zeroconf ?
> >
> >
> >
> > curiously,
> > James
> 
> I think avahi is a KDE thing.  I don't really know what zeroconf is.  If
> I recall correctly, some package said it had to have that so I turned it
> on.  No clue what it is even after looking up the definition with euse.
> May as well be Greek.  ;-)

Hmm ... they're not.  Avahi is daemon utilising multicast DNS and DNS Service 
Discovery for devices and services which are advertising themselves on your 
network.  Zeroconf is the standard used for this purpose.  Unless you expect 
to plug and play I am not sure you need them on your machine.  I think that 
for a typical setup where you tell your PCs where the printer is there isn't 
much benefit to justifying installing their dependencies and running a 
daemon.

-- 
Regards,
Mick