Colin schreef: > I've been Gentooing for some time now, but there are still USE flags > that confound me. Like "ftp" and "ssl," for instance--do you need those > to make FTP/HTTPS connections in a web browser, or are those flags just > for incoming connections, as with FTP/Web servers?
If a USE flag is explicitly listed when running emerge with the --verbose switch, it's optional. For example, the ability to make FTP connections is obviously not optional for an FTP server, so there is no ftp USE flag for such programs. Looking at the emerge -pv output for Firefox, there is no ftp or ssl USE flag for that either, because the functionality is part of the program (not optional). So the meaning of the flag depends on the program to some extent-- for what application is ssl an optional configuration? If you encounter such an application, it's usually pretty clear what enabling or disabling the option does within the context of what the program as a whole does. > Does "-mozilla" > block Firefox- and Thunderbird-related stuff? It "blocks" Firefox related stuff as well as Mozilla related stuff, since they're built on the same engine; for example, if you compile Liferea (the RSS news reader) -mozilla, when you click on a news story, the page will open up using the program's internal HTML rendering engine rather than the external Mozilla or Firefox engine that may be present on your system. Basically, you told Liferea not to look for such a thing when compiling, so it doesn't. But of course the use of any such external engine is *optional*, so you may turn it off. On the other hand, the Galeon web browser requires Mozilla to run, so you *will* install Mozilla if you try to install Galeon, no choice about it (no matter how daft it seems to install a web browser you don't want in order to run another web browser you do want). As far as I know, there is no "Thunderbird-related stuff" that other applications might optionally use. So no worries there And what happens to use > flags that aren't specified--are they treated as "flag" or "-flag?" USE flags that aren't specified.... in what way? If you mean not present within the list of options displayed by the -v (or --verbose) switch (the text editor Gedit, for example does not have any plus or minus mozilla USE flag associaed with it), then of course it's not used. If you mean not specified by you to be used in either /etc/make.conf or /etc/portage/package.use, then it's going to be off unless you've turned it on globally (in /etc/make.conf) or locally just for the one package (in /etc/portage/package.use). Gentoo would never be so impolite as to just turn stuff on without asking you-- except in /etc/make.profile/make.defaults, but even stuff there you can turn off in /etc/make.conf. > > I've got a lot of questions, but gentoo.org's USE flag documentation > really isn't all that great. More than one line about a flag would > help. Is there any better documentation out there? global USE flags are very contextual; their meaning depends on the application they're being associated with, so they can only be described in general terms. Local USE flags, specific to a particular application, like "moznomail" for mozilla alone, are fairly well described by one line, being much more limited in scope. HTH, Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
