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boydrice
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 12:24 am    Post subject: [SOLVED] Question on USE flags Reply with quote

I am thinking of trying Gentoo but really have no idea what I would specify for USE flags. I am not unfamiliar compiling software as I am primarily a Slackware user, but the idea of global USE flags is a bit strange to me. Do any Gentoo users not mess with USE flags or does this diminish the strength of Gentoo?

Sorry if this is a common question I checked the FAQ section and didn't see anything specific.


Last edited by boydrice on Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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BillWho
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 1:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

boydrice.

This might help: http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/USE_Flags and http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=2&chap=2

To get a base gentoo system going, you really don't have to make a lot of USE flag settings.

Also USE flag settings can be made at the package level, not globally :wink:
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Jaglover
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 1:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome, boydrice!

Choose the profile that suits you best, it will also set the default USE flags for you. You can always change your USE flags and follow up with emerge -N world to apply. Anything you do in Gentoo can be undone or changed (unless you do something stupid and abuse rm command).
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cach0rr0
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:17 am    Post subject: Re: Question on USE flags Reply with quote

boydrice wrote:
Do any Gentoo users not mess with USE flags or does this diminish the strength of Gentoo?


USE flags - in a one sentence summation - enable/disable different add-ons and/or features of a package, and with that, optional runtime dependencies. Usually, these will control some option that's passed to ./configure

profiles will set sane defaults (mentioned above - 'eselect profile list', and 'eselect profile set ${somenumber}')

this is usually enough to get you a base functional system up and going. You can always decide to add/remove features later.

I personally go the package.use route for most things. This can be a bit of a maintenance headache, but it works quite well as far as leanness goes.
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boydrice
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

BillWho wrote:
boydrice.

This might help: http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/USE_Flags and http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=2&chap=2

To get a base gentoo system going, you really don't have to make a lot of USE flag settings.

Also USE flag settings can be made at the package level, not globally :wink:


Thank you for the information.
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sitquietly
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 31, 2012 7:27 pm    Post subject: Re: [SOLVED] Question on USE flags Reply with quote

boydrice wrote:
I am thinking of trying Gentoo but really have no idea what I would specify for USE flags.....Do any Gentoo users not mess with USE flags or does this diminish the strength of Gentoo?


In the past few months I've switched several systems over to Gentoo (specifically Funtoo because stage3 tarballs are available for starting the installation with up-to-date current -- "unstable" ~amd64 -- packages for my specific corei7 cpu). It seems that the rules I've accumulated for myself so far are

1. Portage gives very clear feedback about the state of my system and exactly what any "emerge" will do. I've learned to trust it.

2. The USE flags are primarily set by my "profile": the initial system installation went most smoothly when I didn't change any flags until after I got a basic system working with my editors, xorg and at least a window manager. There are cyclic dependencies in a linux system, it is unavoidable because the upstream software is itself a rat's nest of dependencies and complexity. The manner in which portage resolves this is almost a miracle :) But some packages will block one another if you try to set too many use flags before you get a functioning system installed.

3. After installing a basic system I start modifying use flags to my preferences. The easiest way to do this is to check the flags for each package as I install or upgrade it: emerge -pv xyzzy will print the use flags used by every package and show whether they are currently set or not. I read the list over, look up the meaning of flags I don't understand and maybe check the ebuild (or use google) to find what a flag will add to a specific package.

4. The profile and package defaults set rational, common use flags and I could easily run my system without ever touching USE. The only time I need to mess with USE flags is when I want something other than the default. "Accepting the defaults" is what you do when you run any other linux distro (except then you don't even get to choose a usage profile). For example I set +latex and pull in latex support everywhere.

5. If a flag is a "global" flag and I seem to want the feature (e.g. qt4 kde semantic-desktop) in all packages that support it then I add the flag to USE in /etc/portage/make.conf, otherwise I add a line to the file /etc/portage/package.use such as
Code:

media-video/vlc    jack libsamplerate matroska speex theora vaapi

I keep the package.use file in sorted order. I have 205 packages listed in my package.use at this point.

I'm really happy with how easy it is to get exactly the features I want in my systems, and to change my mind :lol: and quickly update the system to my changed preferences.

To answer the OP's question: It is not necessary to mess with USE flags to get a good (better than other distros) system and you can ignore them for now, learn about the flags slowly, they'll be there to give you the power you need when you need it.
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cach0rr0
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 2:52 am    Post subject: Re: [SOLVED] Question on USE flags Reply with quote

sitquietly wrote:
post


++
more or less exactly how I do things, but was too lazy to type out
my need for global use flags beyond what my profile provides has been minimal.
so far so good
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