Ok, so I think I understand where you are coming from... Firstly, USE flags are not meant to have a specific purpose. Enabling python support is non-specific as it doesn't describe how it is enabled or what python support actually is.
Lets compare 2 packages to demonstrate... subversion has a python use flag, this flag will install a subversion api for python. so within python you an interact with subversion. as another example. vim also has a python use flag. this flag enables the ability to execute python commands from within vim. _But_ it is important to note that nowhere does the python use flag attempt to distinguish between the 2 types of support. This is where I believe you are getting stuck. The reason for having non-specific use flags is otherwise we would have hundreds of duplicate local use flags whose descriptions differ only slightly. We are not attempting to document all the functionality of each package. It is up to you to discover what packages you want to have python support. > > The words is given different meaning depending on whatever I'm looking > at the portage tree or working on configuring emerge. The portage trees > global flag, is no indication whatever I should put the flag in USE="" > in make.conf, in many cases a portage tree global flag is more an > indication that I should use it locally pr. package. > well I would only agree with that if you correlate the global status of a USE flag to the number of packages that use it and you are wanting to only enable the bare minimum use flags for the pacakges that you require. But anyway, in summary If you want to find out what a packages USE flag does, it is better to read the upstream documentation. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
