'equery uses vde -a'

[paradigm-X]

When I do 'equery uses vde -a', I see output these data:

user@localhost ~ $ equery uses vde -a
!!! No USE flags found for net-misc/vde-2.2.2
[ Legend : U - final flag setting for installation]
[ : I - package is installed with flag ]
[ Colors : set, unset ]
* Found these USE flags for net-misc/vde-2.3.1:
U I
- - pcap : Enable the pcap-based plugin that allows creating a switch against a real interface.
+ + ssl : Enable the cryptcab plugin that allows creating an encrypted virtual cable.
- - static-libs : Build static libraries

Now, based on my understanding of the following explanation:

" Listing Per-Package USE Flags with uses (u)

equery's uses module can provide information about what USE flags are available for a specific package, and which of those flags is currently enabled."

I would expect that it should be possible for me to install vde with the pcap USE flag enabled. So, since I did in fact have the 'pcap'package installed prior to installing the 'vde' package and I did install the 'vde' package with the following command:

USE="pcap ssl" emerge vde


Why then does it not appear that the 'pcap' USE flag has been enabled for the vde package? What am I missing? I do actually need to get this flag enabled for vde so that I can use it with KVM/QEMU accordingly.

[quilosaq]

¡Hi!

pcap use flag is only for 2.3.1 version of vde.

Try that:

[paradigm-X]

Hello, quilosaq.

Yes, sure enough, that did it for me! Okay, so I am really happy about the outcome, but it leads me to two questions, which I hope you can shed some light on. First, how is it that you could see that using the other one was necessary, ie., using the other version? Is something in the data alerting you to this fact? I see nothing to that effect. Secondly, after reading your suggestion, as I wanted to determine whether removing the stable version of vde, to replace it with the later one, might pose a problem based on its dependencies, I did 'equery depends vde' to see what popped up. I could see QEMU was using vde, but the presentation of data did not make it clear to me specifically which versions of vde would suffice:

app-emulation/qemu-1.5.3 (vde ? net-misc/vde)

My question is, does the question mark indicate a wildcard meaning that any version is okay? Again, thanks a lot for the help.

[quilosaq]

Not sure I understand what you're asking but ...
Q1.- On the issue of the use flags defined in each version the answer is in the output of equery. I point the keywords: