Where to find info/listing on all other make.conf flags?

[Dr Croubie]

So I'm probably going to out my noobiness by asking this, but it's an issue that's been bugging me in the whole 10+ years I've been using Gentoo, I've never read the answer and I've never actually thought to ask.

I was just looking at the last few lines output of my 'emerge -- info' as part of a separate problem:

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USE="3dnow 3dnowext X acl acpi alsa amd64 bash-completion bzip2 cairo cdda cddb cdr cjk cli crypt css curl cxx dbus dri drm drmkms dvd dvdr egl evdev exceptions exif ffmpeg fftw flac fontconfig fortran ftp gallium gbm gcj gd gdbm gif gimp glamor gmp gpm gtk gtk3 gzip hardened hddtemp hvm iconv icu idn introspection ipv6 java java6 javascript jpeg justify kde kms kvm latex lcms libkms lm_sensors lzma lzo mad mime mmap mmx modules mozilla mp3 mp4 mpeg mplayer ncurses nls nptl nsplugin odbc ogg openal opencl opengl openmp openvg pam pax_kernel pcntl pcre pdf perl php pie plasma png posix python qemu qt3support qt4 ruby session smp sockets sound source spice sqlite sse sse2 sse3 sse4 sse4a ssl ssp svg sysvipc szip tcl tcpd threads tiff truetype udev unicode upower urandom usb vcd vhost-net vhosts vim-syntax vlc vnc vorbis x264 xattr xcb xen xml xtpax zip zlib"
ABI_X86="64"
ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci"
APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd 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 cgi cgid 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"
CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump author"
CAMERAS="ptp2"
COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog"
CPU_FLAGS_X86="3dnow 3dnowext mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4a"
ELIBC="glibc"
GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ublox ubx"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev"
KERNEL="linux"
LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text"
LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer"
LINGUAS="en_GB en"
OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice"
PHP_TARGETS="php5-5"
PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7"
PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_4"
RUBY_TARGETS="ruby19 ruby20"
USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="radeonsi radeon"
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"
USE_PYTHON="2.7"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

(they were all on one line squished together so I've expanded them for clarity).

OK, so USE is fairly obvious. If I want to know what a USE flag does, all I have to do is 'grep -i (query) /usr/portage/profiles/use.*' - I've been doing that for 10 years. Sometimes it's annoying when they drop in and out of existence without me knowing, but the occasional 'emerge -epv world | less' and combing the output with a fine-tooth comb for stuff I don't want is easy enough (if not time consuming).

But what about all the others, where do I find info on them? Python/PHP/Ruby_Targets are fairly self explanatory, and things like Linguas and Input_Devices are covered somewhere in the handbook.

But XTABLES_ADDONS? WTF is that? What are all these addons and what do they do, where is a listing so I can decide which of these (if any) I want? Ditto LCD_DEVICES, GPSD_PROTOCOLS, APACHE2_MODULES, LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS, CALLIGRA_FEATURES. Seeing as I don't have apache on my machine that list is kind of redundant, but I don't want to remove it until I know what they do.

Even the new CPU_FLAGS_X86 - it's all well and good (and certainly lazy enough) to just let that fancy script find them all and append them to my make.conf, which I did (it even found things that I wouldn't have thought of, like popcnt, but after some wikipediaing I now know it's part of sse4). But for those of us trying to learn stuff, is there a list of them anywhere easy to grep?

And the Unset ones, what can I put in them? Is there a list somewhere on my machine and/or online of all valid options? It's easy to take stuff out of all the ones full-by-default (like Alsa_Cards), but not knowing what's valid starting from empty makes it infinitely harder.

[charles17]

But XTABLES_ADDONS? WTF is that? What are all these addons and what do they do, where is a listing so I can decide which of these (if any) I want? Ditto LCD_DEVICES, GPSD_PROTOCOLS, APACHE2_MODULES, LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS, CALLIGRA_FEATURES. Seeing as I don't have apache on my machine that list is kind of redundant, but I don't want to remove it until I know what they do.

Some packages are having such kind of USE flags. One can find them using eix -U or eix -IU for those installed.

$ eix -U lcd_devices --only-names
app-misc/lcd4linux
app-misc/lcdproc

[Dr Croubie]

Thanks, that's the first part of the question solved, finding what packages are affected by each flag.
eg, for Xtables_addons, it's only applicable to one package which I don't have, so if I delete it or not there's no issue (I presume).

The next part is, how do I find out what they actually do?
eg, take LibreOffice Extensions:

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eix -U LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS
[I] app-office/libreoffice
     Available versions:  4.2.8.2 **4.2.9999 ~4.3.5.2 **4.3.9999 **9999-r2 {aqua bluetooth +branding coinmp collada +cups dbus debug eds firebird gltf gnome gstreamer +gtk gtk3 java jemalloc kde mysql odk opengl postgres telepathy test +vba vlc +webdav ELIBC="FreeBSD" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="nlpsolver scripting-beanshell scripting-javascript wiki-publisher" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7 python3_3 python3_4" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_3 python3_4"}
     Installed versions:  4.2.8.2(14:31:30 11/01/15)(dbus gtk gtk3 java kde opengl vba vlc webdav -aqua -bluetooth -branding -cups -debug -eds -firebird -gnome -gstreamer -jemalloc -mysql -odk -postgres -telepathy -test ELIBC="-FreeBSD" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="-nlpsolver -scripting-beanshell -scripting-javascript -wiki-publisher" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7 -python3_3 -python3_4" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_4 -python3_3")
     Homepage:            http://www.libreoffice.org
     Description:         LibreOffice, a full office productivity suite

For a start, the 'presenter-console' and 'presenter-minimizer' listed in my 'emerge --info' aren't in that list. Also, it's fairly obvious that it would have been the libreoffice package that used these extension flags.
The next part of the puzzle is finding out what these extensions are. For this example, they may or may not be listed somewhere in the package documentation or helpfile of the program, or their website.

But what about something that has many packages using the same flags, how do I find out what the flags actually do, is there an easy list of that without trawling through reams of documentation?

[jburns]

Try

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equery u app-office/libreoffice

[charles17]

But what about something that has many packages using the same flags, how do I find out what the flags actually do, is there an easy list of that without trawling through reams of documentation?

Try

$ man euse

[mv]

For a start, the 'presenter-console' and 'presenter-minimizer' listed in my 'emerge --info' aren't in that list.

eix lists those USE-flags which are actually used by (some available version of) libreoffice. The information of emerge --info comes from $PORTDIR/profiles/desc/libreoffice_extensions.desc; either that file has not been updated yet, or it already describes planned use-flags. I conjecture the former, i.e. perhaps one should report a bug.

[dufeu]

So I'm probably going to out my noobiness by asking this, but it's an issue that's been bugging me in the whole 10+ years I've been using Gentoo, I've never read the answer and I've never actually thought to ask.

I've just been installing gentoo on a 2007 era MSI 1000 netbook. I like to pretend I understand what I'm doing so I've been using my main system as a guide to determine the USE flags I want to set as well all the USE flag expansion variables.

This is a chunk of my restructuring of /etc/portage/make.conf as I currently understand "What things mean" and "How they work":

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#
#   X desktop drivers/environment plugins

VIDEO_CARDS="intel i915"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev"
ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel"
LCD_DEVICES=""


#
#   Other input (files) device drivers

CAMERAS="canon minolta konica ptp2"
GPSD_PROTOCOLS=""


#
#   New iptables extensions not yet available in kernel
#   Since we are behind a firewall and don't currently bother
#   with packet filtering inside our local network, don't
#   build these.

XTABLES_ADDONS=""


#
#   Other package plugins
#   It's been years since I've given a projector presentation.

LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS=""

It may or may not be helpful.

What might be a little more helpful is a reminder about rarely or unmentioned assumptions.

Each set of these expanded use variables are optional components to a larger framework. If you aren't installing the 'larger framework', then none of the mentioned components will be installed.

For example: I'll definitely be installing 'libreoffice'. But since I no longer give presentations, the LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS are undesirable for me. Don't need them. Don't want them.

On the other hand, I don't have any GPS devices. I don't install either Apache nor Calligra and I'm not using network packet filtering. The only thing setting these variables to null does is cut down on the clutter in 'emerge --info'.

In essence, you can totally ignore any of these varable sets if you're not installing the framework they go into. On the other hand, if you do install any of the relevant frameworks, then you have a list of all the optional components immediately at hand.