Re: [gentoo-user] tunning use flag

["Richard Fish" <bigfish@asmallpond.org>]

On 4/12/06, Pawel K <pawlaczus@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello
>
> I'm not sure whether I understand the USE flag
> properly.
>
> I'm using fluxbox as X window manager. I'm not using
> kde and gnome and I'm not interested in those
> packages.

USE flags turn on optional support (and dependancies) in packages.  So
for those packages with optional kde or gnome support, disabling those
use flags will build the packages without that support.

But they do not effect packages with fixed dependancies.  For example,
kdevelop requires kdelibs, so if you merge kdevelop, you will end up
with kdelibs installed as well, regardless of the kde use flag
setting.

For the qt and gtk flags, the general effect is that you do not get
any optional GUI interfaces for the packages.  As has been pointed
out, merging ethereal without gtk gives you only tethereal. 
Similarly, merging mplayer without gtk support gives you only mplayer,
not gmplayer.  Xine gives you only xine, not gxine.  And so on.

If you really don't want those other interfaces, then disable the
flags.  You can always enable them again for a specific package with
/etc/portage/package.use.

Also you might want to get in the habit of running emerge with the
--pretend and --verbose options.  That will show you what use flags
are available for a package, and if you see gtk or qt, you can
investigate further what you lose by disabling them.

-Richard

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