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Daganoth
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 12 Jun 2002
Posts: 194
Location: Greensboro, NC

PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2003 3:12 am    Post subject: How many is too many? Reply with quote

I've always asked myself this question. Since I started using Gentoo, I've loaded my make.conf with all the USE flags that I thought I may need in the future. To give you an idea:
Quote:
USE="X acpi apache2 bonobo cdr cups dga dvd encode evo esd fbcon flash gphoto2 gpm gtkhtml imap imlib java jpeg libg++ libgda mozilla mpeg oav oss pdflib quicktime samba svga spell sdl truetype smooth usb xml xml2 avi png gif python perl oggvorbis pam libwww ssl nls mmx 3dnow gtk gtk2 gnome gnome2 xft -alsa -qt -qtmt -kde -arts"

However, several times carousing throughout the forums I've noticed configurations with only several flags. So, here are my questions:

Does having too many, possibly unecessary USE flags installed affect the size of the install and its performance?

If I do need to get rid of some, what do I absolutely need?

Thanks!
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barlad
l33t
l33t


Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 673

PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2003 5:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The problem is that most of those flags will only be used for only one application or for some packages you will probably never install.

Those flags should indeed affect the size of your install but it is not a problem if you are paying attention to what is installed. In the same manner, it may affect performance due to 1: Size (although it is most likely limited) and 2: complicated programs. I am pretty sure the impact is very very limited though. The decrease of performance must not break the 1%. (it's a value I put out of my head without any thinking, so do not be too harsh!).

Anyway, to sum it up... I think all those flags do not hurt. It is just a mess. My USE flags are : USE="gtk2". And I have all I need. :)
So if I had to chose some flags in your list, I would go for gtk2 and maybe one or two others specific to your configuration.

You can still check important packages for possible flags and add those you need manually for every compilation.
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