Override USE flags between parentheses!

Message

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 1:39 pm

Hello folks!

Quick question, is there a way to override USE flags that appear between parentheses when selecting a package for emerging?

Post by **fedeliallalinea** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 1:58 pm

Use flags between parentheses mean that is masked, you can unmask it with /etc/portage/profile/use.mask or /etc/portage/profile/package.use.mask.
Remember that if they are masked there is a reason.

grknight · Post by **grknight** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 1:59 pm

Yes there is, except in the case of "(-flag%)" which just means it is flat out removed from the package.

One should ask why though as there are often very good reasons why a flag is forced on or off.

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 3:37 pm

Thanks for the replies!

I guess the one I'm trying to override is dropped off the package, as fedeliallalinea's method didn't work, the only way I believe is to compile it's vanilla, which I yet have to try.

Post by Hu » Wed Aug 02, 2023 4:10 pm

If you show the full output about which you have a question, we may be able to offer better guidance.

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 5:29 pm

Thank you Hu!

The package is GCC, and it's not an output, it's the active USE flags shown when you select it for compilation. The flag I wanted to use is "custom-cflags".

I don't know why it's showing as masked! I saw another thread where the user reported it's working!

Post by Hu » Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:18 pm

How do you know what USE flags will be active? By inspecting the output of emerge. You did not show that output, so we were limited in what we could offer. I was suggesting that you should show us what you saw that led to you deciding to post a question, so that we could evaluate it in full.

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Wed Aug 02, 2023 7:09 pm

You are correct!

HYG ...

Code: Select all

[ebuild   R    ] sys-devel/gcc-13.2.0:13::gentoo  USE="(cxx) debug* fortran lto (multilib) nls nptl openmp pgo (pie) sanitize ssp test valgrind -ada (-cet) (-custom-cflags) -d -default-stack-clash-protection -default-znow -doc (-fixed-point) -go -graphite -hardened (-ieee-long-double) -jit (-libssp) -modula2 -objc -objc++ -objc-gc (-pch) -systemtap -vanilla -vtv -zstd"

You'll notice that other use flags are masked as well like" fixed-point" which is more relevant ...

Can I control the font size of code snippets?

hdcg · Post by **hdcg** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 2:24 am

If you do a search through your profiles directory, you usually also find the reason why the specific use flag is masked. For example:

Code: Select all

gentoobox ~ # grep -R fixed-point /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles
...
/var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/arch/base/package.use.mask:sys-devel/gcc fixed-point
...

Code: Select all

gentoobox ~ # less /var/db/repos/gentoo/profiles/arch/base/package.use.mask 
...
# Mike Gilbert <floppym@gentoo.org> (2022-10-16)
# Only supported on MIPS.
dev-lang/gnat-gpl fixed-point
sys-devel/gcc fixed-point
...

Best Regards,
Holger

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:11 pm

Thank you all for the replies! I appreciate it ...

To be honest with everyone, the Gentoo developers need to facilitate an environment of exploration, rather than limiting it.

Functionality is the main target of any software, for sure! But again, imposing limitations every now and then is counter intuitive to the idea of FOSS altogether ...

Everything has workarounds, yes, but accessibility, and ease of application is what made Linux spread globally in a period when windows was dominant!

Or don't you agree?!!

Post by **asturm** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:22 pm

Every option exposed comes with support cost. The supply of developers is limited.

Reading the mask message: Gentoo maintainers won't port that option to non-MIPS. But you could, I guess?

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 12:50 pm

You're right in that point! However FOSS started as community movement rather than an organization ...

One of the reasons behind the explosive success of open source is that it was kept by communities all through the 1st decade of the century, but then companies began to dominate, if not with capital, then with influence on the philosophy, and the shape of the current generation of developers and maintainers mind sets.

There's an immense power in the collective intelligence, that the free software movement grew on, but seems to have left behind nowadays!

Post by **asturm** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 1:07 pm

Are you a bot?

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Thu Aug 03, 2023 1:16 pm

Very curious question!
Is there a captcha to that I need to complete?

Post by Hu » Thu Aug 03, 2023 2:42 pm

No captcha, but your arguments sound suspiciously like the output of a chatbot.

Regarding your complaint, Gentoo developers generally do try to document things (as evidenced by the quality of the manual pages, and by the mask message that told you this won't work), and generally do expose as many options as they reasonably can. This option is locked out for you because the developers are certain that if you enabled it on a non-MIPS target, it is not supported. I would not be at all surprised to learn that it is sufficiently unsupported that it will outright fail to build. Why invite you to try something they know isn't supported, likely won't work, and which they do not intend to make work? That would just frustrate you in the beginning, and us later when you come seeking support for an impossible configuration. What exactly do you think should have been done differently here?

Demo · Post by **Demo** » Fri Aug 04, 2023 7:55 am

Thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure what to say about that except for I was just sharing my thoughts about how support forums are run these days.
Before 2010 it was all run by peers, no titles - except for a few moderators - and no pressure. I guess it started with Ubuntu forums, but I'm not sure. All in all, I guess forums are leaning towards the client server model rather than the peer to peer model, which won't be a great success with open source given the wide base of users and applications.

On the other hand, more and better documentation is absolutely needed, without arguments, for the base system, current implementation, and a few use cases for clarification, would be ideal.

I still remember the 1st post I submitted here was because there was no mention in any online Gentoo resources that in order to install a merged usr system, you needed to download a specific base package. More over, there was no link to the tar archive, not obvious one at least.

What I'm trying to say is that I do appreciate the great efforts behind the great distro, but more is certainly needed!

GDH-gentoo · Post by **GDH-gentoo** » Fri Aug 04, 2023 12:46 pm

Demo wrote:I'm not sure what to say about that except for I was just sharing my thoughts about how support forums are run these days.
Before 2010 it was all run by peers, no titles - except for a few moderators - and no pressure. [...] All in all, I guess forums are leaning towards the client server model rather than the peer to peer model, which won't be a great success with open source given the wide base of users and applications.

What? I see no relationship between this opinion, whatever it means, with what happened on this thread. You asked a question, you got an answer: the custom-cflags USE flag is masked by profile for package sys-devel/gcc, you where show where you can look for the reasons, and told how to override the mask. I can't think of any better outcome of coming to a support forum.

Post by Hu » Fri Aug 04, 2023 3:16 pm

The responding users are rather title heavy (in order: fedeliallalinea (Admin), grknight (retired developer), me (Moderator), me, hdcg (no title), asturm (active developer), asturm, me, and GDH-gentoo (no title, but also after Demo's complaint)). However, that is an accident of circumstance. Nothing precludes other untitled users from responding. The titled users got here first through some combination of timing, willingness to address the question, and knowledge required to attempt it. I see enough threads where most or all of the work is done by untitled users that I am not particularly worried.

Post by **NeddySeagoon** » Fri Aug 04, 2023 7:25 pm

Demo,

In the spirit of FOSS, you should try it and tell use what happens.
Then maybe fix it, if that's within your skill set.
That would enable you to contribute a patch so it works for everyone.

If there is sufficient interest, others will help.

Thinking on it a bit more, fixed point is only useful on CPUs that have fixed point instructions.
That's mostly Digital Signal Processors and not Intel/AMD.

With careful design, its possible to use integers in place of fixed point.
e.g. angles are 0 to MAXINT, for 2π.
Trig functions use a π/4 LUT.
...
It works well enough for real time navigation calculations in a 12MHz bit serial system, with a 16/24/32 bit word length.
I'm a forum admin, a Gentoo developer without +W, which all happened by accident but my main claim to fame is playing with computers for a very long time.