best way to deal with USE flags??

[grimx]

i was wondering whats the best way to deal with the USE flags when installing ebuilds??
my /etc/make.conf is getting overloaded with USE flags big time.

would /etc/portage/package.use be better on a ebuild by ebuild install??
or what ??

[krinn]

well, if you love order, i suppose the per package use flag is the best
but you'll get a bloated /etc/portage directory, or package.use file or the make.conf one

you can also have a look at flagedit (never tried it, but description looks like it's what you are looking for)

[phajdan.jr]

You might be over-customizing. Try to only set the most important flags, otherwise it's just hard to maintain.

It may be useful to see your /etc/make.conf and emerge --info.

[grimx]

here are my USE flags that i've gathered up to date:

Code: Select all

USE="gtk sld -doc -gstreamer -odbc -pch -daemon -geoip -remote -stats -upnp gnome gdu policykit /
     device-mapper sqlite qt4 automount debug nls nsplugin alsa sdl ipv6 -3dnow -real -3dnowext /
     -altivec -jack -mmx -nas -oss -portaudio -pulseaudio -sse gecko jpeg lcms ldap mp3 ncurses /
     opengl oss perl png ssl -test threads truetype xml -jce -odbc -multilib kde kdrive dvd alsa /
     cdr dbus hal X -32bit extras -cpi -custom-cflags -esd -fontconfi -dedicated udev -win32codecs /
     vorbis dvd ffmpeg flac gcrypt libnotify mpgeg ogg png sl svg x264 scd xy -aalib -atmo -avahi /
     -cdda -cddax -cddb -cdio -dci394 -live -stream -vlm -wma-fixed -xinerama -xosd -zvbi -mnx -sound /
     -tcl python spell tiff -djvu -doc -dvi -gnome-keyring -nautilus -tilib -derby -doc -jce -odbc /
     xvmc nvidia xorg npt1 acpi startup-notification xscreensaver -networkmanager gstreamer meanwhile /
     exceptions glib iconv qt3support ssl -aqua -doc -optimized-qmake -pch -firebird mysql -obdc -pcs /
     a52 aac css dts modplug musepack theora v41 vorbis --newuse"

now there are most likely sum repeats in my list.

[grimx]

here is the output of emerge --info

Code: Select all

Portage 2.1.8.3 (default/linux/x86/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.4.3, glibc-2.10.1-r1, 2.6.32-gentoo-r7 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.32-gentoo-r7-i686-AMD_Sempron-tm-_Processor_LE-1300-with-gentoo-1.12.13
Timestamp of tree: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:15:02 +0000
app-shells/bash:     4.0_p37
dev-java/java-config: 2.1.10
dev-lang/python:     2.6.4-r1, 3.1.2-r3
dev-util/cmake:      2.6.4-r3
sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.13
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.6-r2
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.65
sys-devel/automake:  1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1
sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3
sys-devel/gcc:       4.4.3-r2
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1
sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.6b
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.30-r1
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/X11/xkb"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="assume-digests distlocks fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.ucsb.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/gentoo/"
LANG="C"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
MAKEOPTS="-j1"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="/ X a52 aac acl acpi alsa automount berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt css cups cxx dbus debug device-mapper dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode exceptions exif extras fam ffmpeg firefox flac fortran gcrypt gdbm gdu gecko gif glib gnome gpm gstreamer gtk hal iconv ipv6 jpeg kde kdrive lcms ldap libnotify mad meanwhile mikmod mng modplug modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mpgeg mudflap musepack mysql ncurses nls npt1 nptl nptlonly nsplugin nvidia ogg opengl openmp oss pam pango pcre pdf perl png policykit ppds pppd python qt3support qt4 readline reflection scd sdl session sl sld spell spl sqlite ssl startup-notification svg sysfs tcpd theora threads tiff truetype udev unicode usb v41 vorbis x264 x86 xcb xml xorg xscreensaver xulrunner xv xvid xvmc xy zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev glint intel mach64 mga neomagic nv r128 radeon savage sis tdfx trident vesa via vmware voodoo" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" 
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

[d2_racing]

Hi, can you post this :

Code: Select all

# cat /etc/make.conf

Since you use the desktop profile, you could start with removing your own use flags that are already inside the desktop profile

[Shining Arcanine]

i was wondering whats the best way to deal with the USE flags when installing ebuilds??
my /etc/make.conf is getting overloaded with USE flags big time.

would /etc/portage/package.use be better on a ebuild by ebuild install??
or what ??

On my desktop, I use the default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop/kde profile, which eliminates the need for a great number of USE flags to be manually specified. I also put USE flags that I do need into /etc/make.conf if they are global use flags according to the following page:

http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml

Anything else is package specific in /etc/portage/package.use

[d2_racing]

For example, I use KDE 4.4.4 and I have only this :

Code: Select all

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
MAKEOPTS="-j5 -l5"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/gentoo-distfiles/ http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
#GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
USE="kde -gnome -xfce qt4 qt3support xcomposite nls truetype userlocales unicode gnutls" 
LINGUAS="fr"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev"
VIDEO_CARDS="vesa nvidia"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64"

PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES="log warn error info"
PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM="echo:log,error,warn,info  save:log,error,warn,info syslog:log,error,warn,info"
#EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--jobs=5 --load-average=5.0 --with-bdeps y"

[grimx]

here is the output of cat /etc/make.conf

Code: Select all

# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example for a more
# detailed example.
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
#ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86"
# WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done lightly.
# Please consult http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/change-chost.xml before changing.
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
MAKEOPTS="-j1"
#source "/var/lib/layman/make.conf"
USE="gtk sld -doc -gstreamer -odbc -pch -daemon -geoip -remote -stats -upnp gnome gdu policykit /
     device-mapper sqlite qt4 automount debug nls nsplugin alsa sdl ipv6 -3dnow -real -3dnowext /
     -altivec -jack -mmx -nas -oss -portaudio -pulseaudio -sse gecko jpeg lcms ldap mp3 ncurses /
     opengl oss perl png ssl -test threads truetype xml -jce -odbc -multilib kde kdrive dvd alsa /
     cdr dbus hal X -32bit extras -cpi -custom-cflags -esd -fontconfi -dedicated udev -win32codecs /
     vorbis dvd ffmpeg flac gcrypt libnotify mpgeg ogg png sl svg x264 scd xy -aalib -atmo -avahi /
     -cdda -cddax -cddb -cdio -dci394 -live -stream -vlm -wma-fixed -xinerama -xosd -zvbi -mnx -sound /
     -tcl python spell tiff -djvu -doc -dvi -gnome-keyring -nautilus -tilib -derby -doc -jce -odbc /
     xvmc nvidia xorg npt1 acpi startup-notification xscreensaver -networkmanager gstreamer meanwhile /
     exceptions glib iconv qt3support ssl -aqua -doc -optimized-qmake -pch -firebird mysql -obdc -pcs /
     a52 aac css dts modplug musepack theora v41 vorbis --newuse pixmaps -lilo"

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics"
VIDEO_CARD="nvidia"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="*"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.ucsb.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/gentoo/"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://ftp.ucsb.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/gentoo/"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

[grimx]

i'm using GNOME desktop 2.28.2.

Here is what i have, output of eselect profile list:

Code: Select all

 default/linux/x86/10.0/desktop *

Should i change it to Gnome

Code: Select all

default/linux/x86/10.0/desktop/gnome

[Shining Arcanine]

For example, I use KDE 4.4.4 and I have only this :

Code: Select all

CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
MAKEOPTS="-j5 -l5"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/gentoo-distfiles/ http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
#GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
USE="kde -gnome -xfce qt4 qt3support xcomposite nls truetype userlocales unicode gnutls" 
LINGUAS="fr"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev"
VIDEO_CARDS="vesa nvidia"
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64"

PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES="log warn error info"
PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM="echo:log,error,warn,info  save:log,error,warn,info syslog:log,error,warn,info"
#EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--jobs=5 --load-average=5.0 --with-bdeps y"

What profile are you using? Specifying the nls USE flag is probably unnecessary because it is done by default. Also, are you using uclibc by any chance? That is the only package that uses the userlocales USE flag.

i'm using GNOME desktop 2.28.2.

Here is what i have, output of eselect profile list:

Code: Select all

 default/linux/x86/10.0/desktop *

Should i change it to Gnome

Code: Select all

default/linux/x86/10.0/desktop/gnome

The gnome profile is meant for people running desktops that use gnome.

[d2_racing]

I'm French canadien and back in 2005, we had to have this use flag so that we could have a fr_CA installation.

It was use only for GCC.

[phajdan.jr]

USE="gtk sld -doc -gstreamer -odbc -pch -daemon -geoip -remote -stats -upnp gnome gdu policykit /
device-mapper sqlite qt4 automount debug nls nsplugin alsa sdl ipv6 -3dnow -real -3dnowext /
-altivec -jack -mmx -nas -oss -portaudio -pulseaudio -sse gecko jpeg lcms ldap mp3 ncurses /
opengl oss perl png ssl -test threads truetype xml -jce -odbc -multilib kde kdrive dvd alsa /
cdr dbus hal X -32bit extras -cpi -custom-cflags -esd -fontconfi -dedicated udev -win32codecs /
vorbis dvd ffmpeg flac gcrypt libnotify mpgeg ogg png sl svg x264 scd xy -aalib -atmo -avahi /
-cdda -cddax -cddb -cdio -dci394 -live -stream -vlm -wma-fixed -xinerama -xosd -zvbi -mnx -sound /
-tcl python spell tiff -djvu -doc -dvi -gnome-keyring -nautilus -tilib -derby -doc -jce -odbc /
xvmc nvidia xorg npt1 acpi startup-notification xscreensaver -networkmanager gstreamer meanwhile /
exceptions glib iconv qt3support ssl -aqua -doc -optimized-qmake -pch -firebird mysql -obdc -pcs /
a52 aac css dts modplug musepack theora v41 vorbis --newuse pixmaps -lilo"

I've highlighted some suspicious pieces of your make.conf. For example, -doc is specified many times. It's only needed once. png is specified at least twice, similarly vorbis. --newuse is not a valid USE flag (it's an emerge command-line switch). "meanwhile" doesn't look like a valid flag. Additionally, you have both "-gstreamer" and "gstreamer" in USE, which suggests it's already hard to maintain. I'd suggest the following:

1. Run emerge -uDNa world (and apply the updates) to make sure the flags are currently in effect.
2. Run revdep-rebuild to make sure the system is in a consistent state.
3. Sort the flags alphabetically and remove any duplicates/contradictions/nonexistent flags.
4. Try removing more obscure flags and see if emerge -uDNa suggests any updates. If yes, put the flag back in place. If no, you can safely drop it.

[d2_racing]

The best should to run this :

Comment your USE variable inside your /etc/make.conf

Now run emerge --info with the desktop profile.

Grab this USE variable and then compare that one with your custom USE variable.

Now add only what is really needed.

[115552]

Hiya,

Have you tried the app called ufed? emerge ufed, run it, and it's a really good manager for all your USE flags. It's a life saver for me.

Code: Select all

 $ eix ufed
[I] app-portage/ufed
     Available versions:  0.40-r6 0.40-r10 ~0.40-r11 0.40.1
     Installed versions:  0.40.1(18:09:31 02/04/10)
     Homepage:            http://www.gentoo.org/
     Description:         Gentoo Linux USE flags editor

[Shining Arcanine]

Hiya,

Have you tried the app called ufed? emerge ufed, run it, and it's a really good manager for all your USE flags. It's a life saver for me.

Code: Select all

 $ eix ufed
[I] app-portage/ufed
     Available versions:  0.40-r6 0.40-r10 ~0.40-r11 0.40.1
     Installed versions:  0.40.1(18:09:31 02/04/10)
     Homepage:            http://www.gentoo.org/
     Description:         Gentoo Linux USE flags editor

Is ufed a component of the discontinued graphical installer?

[115552]

Is ufed a component of the discontinued graphical installer?

Oh, I didn't know you were using that. No I don't think it is. But you could use it afterwards then just emerge -auDN world, use it throughout your days, or with the CLI installer.

[Yamakuzure]

I second ufed. It will clean up your make.conf by removing doubles and flags that are enabled by your profile anyway.

[d2_racing]

I will double check ufed for sure, I didn't know that ufed could remove the double use flags.

[Section_8]

I usually run euse -i $useflag (I'm not sure what package euse is in - I'm not at home to check it). That will tell you whether a flag is global or local. Global use flags go in make.conf, local ones in /etc/portage/package.use.

[RedSquirrel]

I usually run euse -i $useflag (I'm not sure what package euse is in - I'm not at home to check it). That will tell you whether a flag is global or local.

app-portage/gentoolkit

Global use flags go in make.conf, local ones in /etc/portage/package.use.

That's a matter of personal taste.

[grimx]

i found a program called porthole, i'm going to start using that when i install programs for now on.
porthole has an advanced-emerge option which has an option to create a package.use file(with the specified USE flags).

[d2_racing]

Porthole is this a emerge GUI like himerge ?

[hujuice]

Out of the discussion, I feel very comfortable to manage the USE flags in my make.conf in the following way:

Code: Select all

# ************ USE **************
# ******** profile 'kde' ********
MYPROFILE="apache2 mysql"
HW="3dnow -bluetooth directfb fbcon hddtemp lm_sensors mmx nvidia smp svga xcomposite xvmc"
SYSTEM="caps -cups curl -fortran java nsplugin -oss syslog"
NET="-ipv6 -isdnlog -ldap ppp wifi"
CMDL="bash-completion gpm offensive vim-syntax"
KDE="htmlhandbook plasma semantic-desktop"
GNOME_DEPS="gstreamer -gtk"
DEV="tidy vhosts"
MMEDIA="aalib cdda cddb css dvb exif ffmpeg fontconfig gd gimp gphoto2 imagemagick libcaca lame matroska mplayer musicbrainz quicktime theora v4l v4l2 xine xpm xscreensaver"

USE="${MYPROFILE} ${HW} ${SYSTEM} ${NET} ${CMDL} ${GNOME_DEPS} ${KDE} ${DEV} ${MMEDIA}"

For me, this way helps significantly the USE flag management.

Regards,
hujuice

[d2_racing]

Yeah, I saw that method years ago