Thank you for the insight, Alan.  I am just getting to the point of
understanding this.  As a non -developer/programmer I have been at a loss to
understand these basic points about USE flags.  Over time, they begin to
make sense.  Your pointer about the ebuilds is extremely valuable.

Maybe it's just me, in my cluelessness?  Some flags have not been obvious to
me; others have been ambiguous, at least to me.  Maybe digging for all this
is what makes Gentoo such an excellent experience.  On the other hand, a
little more clarity would not hurt, IMHO.  Beggars can't be choicy, but is
it really not possible to provide a slightly clearer explanation of what a
USE flag does?  I'd better shut up.

Alan


On 1/2/07, Alan McKinnon <alan@linuxholdings.co.za> wrote:
>
> On Monday 01 January 2007 05:52, Alan E. Davis wrote:
> > On 12/31/06, Aniruddha <mailing_list@planet.nl> wrote:
> > >  I think this is an excellent idea! For starters you can use euse:
> > >
> > > # euse -i useflagname
> >
> > I already use euse.  It is really helpful.   The short descriptions
> > of the USE flags are often helpful.  Just as often, they are not
> > informative enough to enable me, at least, to make an informed
> > decision.  A little more information would often have helped.
> >
> > Do you have any ideas about a next step?
> >
> > Alan
>
> AFAIK the only references to what the flags mean
> is /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc. To find out more, read the ebuild to
> see/divine what the developer has in mind with that flag. For instance,
> kdebase-3.5.5-r3 has amongst others the following:
>
> DEPEND="arts? ( ~kde-base/arts-${PV} )
>         >=media-libs/freetype-2
>         media-libs/fontconfig
>         pam? ( kde-base/kdebase-pam )
>         >=dev-libs/cyrus-sasl-2
>         ldap? ( >=net-nds/openldap-2 )
>         cups? ( net-print/cups )
>         ...
>
> So you would have to look into those various optional packages, find out
> what they are, then look into kdebase a bit deeper and find what it
> does with those optional packages. For example, the 'ldap' flag causes
> kdebase to be built against net-nds/openldap.
>
> The point is that it's simply not possible to give detailed info about
> USE flags most of the time, and some intense RTFCing and research is
> involved
>
> alan
>
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


-- 
Alan Davis, Kagman High School, Saipan  lngndvs@gmail.com     1-670-256-2043

I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I must
share it with other people who like it.              --------Richard
Stallman

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection
of authority.  ----- Thomas H. Huxley