organized / sorted USE flags

[chris.pickett]

EDIT: I plan on cleaning this up sometime and summarizing at the top for everyone. There is also a great script that Narada wrote to list USE flag info for your system, I'll write about it at some point too.

Hi. I am installing Gentoo for the first time. I found it a nightmare going through all the different USE flags, trying to determine which ones to set / unset / leave alone for my system. Sure, some of them are obvious, but many are not and require googling.

So, while waiting for bootstrapping to complete, I've organized the USE flags into many different sections. It helps me a lot to think of them like this.

I rearranged them and grouped them under new headings. I'm sure that some of the time, they are not organized properly, so I need your help with that (I will edit this post if you like -- let me know what's best). I also think that it might be handy to have a couple of fields next to the use flag name, such that you can sort on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd field easily at the command line.

If anyone thinks it's worth submitting to the official doc maintainers, I'd be more than happy; just tell me if so and where :)

So, here we go:

computer_languages:
atlas Adds support for atlas instead of blas in dev-lang/R
guile Adds support for dev-util/guile (interpreter for Scheme)
java Adds support for Java
perl Adds support/bindings for the Perl language.
python Adds support/bindings for the Python language
ruby Adds support/bindings for the Ruby language
xml Check/Support flag for XML library (version 1)
xml2 Check/Support flag for XML library (version 2)

core_cpu_type:
x86 indicates that architecture is x86
ppc indicates that architecture is PowerPC
ppc64 indicates that architecture is PowerPC64
sparc indicates that architecture is (32-bit) Sparc
alpha indicates that architecture is 64-bit Alpha
mips indicates that architecture is MIPS based
hppa indicates that architecture is HP PA-Risc
arm indicates that architecture is ARM
amd64 indicates that architecture is AMD64

databases:
berkdb Adds support for sys-libs/db (Berkeley DB for MySQL)
firebird Adds support for the Firebird relational database
freetds Adds support for the TDS protocol to connect to MSSQL/Sybase databases
gdbm Adds support for sys-libs/gdbm (GNU database libraries)
informix Adds support for Informix database
innodb Adds innodb support for mySQL (transaction support)
libg++ Adds C++ modules in dev-db/postgresql (libpq++)
mysql Adds mySQL support
oci8 Adds Oracle Support
odbc Adds ODBC Support (Open DataBase Connectivity)
postgres Adds support for the postgresql database
sqlite Adds support for sqlite - embedded sql database

desktop_environments:
gnome Adds GNOME support
kde Adds support for kde-base/kde (K Desktop Enviroment)

displays:
dga Adds DGA Support (Xfree86) (DGA=Direct Graphic Access)
directfb Adds support for DirectFB layer (library for FB devices)
fbcon Adds framebuffer support for the console, via the kernel
ggi Adds support for media-libs/libggi (non-X video api/drivers)
gpm Adds support for sys-libs/gpm (Console-based mouse driver)
ncurses Adds ncurses support (console display library)
opengl Adds support for OpenGL
slang Adds support for the slang text display library (it's like ncurses, but different)
svga Adds support for SVGAlib (graphics library)
truetype Adds support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fonts
X Adds support for XFree86
xosd Sends display using the X On Screen Display library

distributed_computing:
afs Adds OpenAFS support (distributed file system)
mpi Adds MPI (Message Passing Interface) layer to the apps that support it.

extra_hardware:
acpi Adds support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
apm Adds APM (Advanced Power Management) support
cdr Adds support for CD writer hardware (e.g. compile the koncd app in kdemultimedia)
cups Add support for CUPS (Common Unix Printing System)
dvd Adds support for DVDs
dvdr Adds support for DVD writer hardware (e.g. in xcdroast)
foomaticdb Adds support for the foomatic printing driver database
gphoto2 Adds digital camera support
gps Adds support for Global Positioning System
joystick Add support for joysticks in all packages
lirc Adds support for lirc (Linux's Infra-Red Remote Control)
nocardbus Disables cardbus support in pcmcia-cs
pcmcia Adds support for PCMCIA slots/devices found on laptop computers
pda Adds support for portable devices.
pnp Adds support for PNP in pcmcia-cs (Plug-N-Play)
ppds Adds support for automatically generated ppd (printing driver) files
scanner Adds support for scanner hardware (e.g. build the sane frontend in kdegraphics)
slp Adds Service Locator Protocol support to CUPS
usb Adds USB support to applications that have optional USB support (e.g. cups)
wavelan Tells pcmcia-cs that you want to use the built-in wvlan drivers instead of the Orinoco drivers
xinerama Add support for XFree86's xinerama extension, which allows you to stretch your display across multiple monitors

human_languages:
bidi Enables bidirectional language support
canna Adds support for the Canna kana to kanji conversion engine
cjk Adds support for Multi-byte character languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
freewnn Adds support for FreeWnn kana to kanji conversion engine
mule Adds multi-language support to XEmacs
nls Adds Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)
unicode Adds support for Unicode

instant_messaging:
aim Enable AIM IM protocol support
icq Enable ICQ IM protocol support
jabber Enable jabber IM protocol support
msn Enable MSN Messenger IM protocol support
oscar Enable Oscar (AIM/ICQ) IM protocol support
yahoo Enable Yahoo Messenger IM protocol support

internal_and_or_BE_CAREFUL:
bootstrap !!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during original system bootstrapping
build !!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used for creating build images and the first half of bootstrapping.
livecd !!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during livecd building.
selinux !!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
static !!do not set this during bootstrap!! Causes things to be statically linked instead of dynamically

mail:
evo Adds support for evolution in gnumeric and multisync
imap Adds support for IMAP
ldap Adds LDAP support (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
maildir Adds support for maildir (~/.maildir) style mail spools
mbox Adds support for mbox (/var/spool/mail) style mail spools
xface Adds xface support -- only in use for sylpheed and sylpheed-claws

multimedia_audio:
audiofile Adds support for libaudiofile where applicable
encode Adds support for MEncoder or LaME encoder, wherever applicable
flac Adds support for the flac audio codec
mad Adds support for mad (high-quality mp3 decoder library and cli frontend)
mikmod Adds libmikmod support to allow playing of SoundTracker-style music files
oggvorbis Adds support for the OggVorbis audio encoding
speex Adds support for the speex audio codec

multimedia_images:
aalib Adds support for media-libs/aalib (ASCII-Graphics Library)
gif Adds GIF image support
imlib Adds support for media-libs/imlib (Image loading and rendering library)
imagemagick Enables support for Imagemagick (image converter)
jpeg Adds JPEG image support
lcms Adds lcms support to media-gfx/imagemagick (Color management)
png Adds support for libpng (PNG images)
tiff Adds support for the tiff image format
wmf Adds support for the wmf vector image format

multimedia_video:
avi Adds Win32 AVI support and also adds avifile (Library for avi) support
dvb Adds support for DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)
theora Adds support for the Theora Video Compression Codec
xv Adds in optional support for the Xvideo extension (an X API for video playback)

multimedia_other:
flash Adds support for creating flash files using Ming
gd Adds support for media-libs/libgd (to generate graphics on the fly)
gd-external Use the external version of libgd rather than the bundled one (possibly dangerous)
gstreamer Adds support for media-libs/gstreamer (Streaming media)
matrox Adds Matrox MGA support to mplayer
mpeg Adds libmpeg3 support to various packages.
quicktime Adds support for OpenQuickTime
xmms Check/Support for XMMS (X MultiMedia System) player.

networking:
apache2 Chooses Apache2 support when a package supports both Apache1 and Apache2
adns Adds support for the adns DNS client library
curl Adds support for client-side URL transfer library
dedicated Adds support for dedicated game servers
ethereal Adds support for ethereal wiretap log support in kismet
ipv6 Adds support for IP version 6
kerberos Adds kerberos support
krb4 Adds optional kerberos 4 compatibility support
samba Adds support for SAMBA
sasl Adds support for the Simple Authentication and Security Layer
snmp Adds support for the Simple Network Management Protocol if available
socks5 Adds support for the socks5 proxy
ssl Adds support for Secure Socket Layer connections
tcpd Adds support for TCP wrappers
vhosts Adds support for installing web-based applications into a virtual-hosting environment
yaz Adds in optional support for the Z39.50 Protocol for Information Retrieval (YAZ)

office_like_stuff:
bonobo Adds support for gnome-base/bonobo (Gnome CORBA interfaces)
cscope Enables cscope interface -- in vim for example
emacs Adds support for GNU Emacs
gb Adds support for Gnome Basic to gnumeric
junit Adds junit awareness -- useful for developers.
leim Adds input methods support to Emacs
libgda Adds GNU Data Access (CORBA wrapper) support for gnumeric
mcal Adds support for MCAL calender system
pdflib Adds support for PDF (Portable Document Format)
plotutils Adds plotutils support to gnuplot (library for 2-D vector graphics)
spell Adds dictionary support
tetex Adds support for teTeX

processor_instruction_sets:
3dnow Adds support for 3dnow multimedia processor instructions
altivec Adds support for optimizations for G4 and G5/ppc970 processors
ev6 Assume Alpha processor is EV6 or better
mmx Adds support for optimizations for Pentium MMX and Athlon class processors
sse fast floating point optimisation for Pentium class chips

scientific:
fftw Use FFTW library for computing Fourier transforms
ginac Adds app-sci/ginac (symbolic math) support
gmp Adds support for dev-libs/gmp (GNU MP library)
netcdf Enable NetCDF data format support

security:
acl Adds support for Access Control Lists
caps Use Linux capabilities library to control privileges.
crypt Add support for encryption -- using mcrypt or gpg where applicable
hardened activate the default security implementation of specific Gentoo Hardened patches (kernel, gcc, glibc, binutils)
pam Adds support PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)
prelude Adds support/bindings for the Prelude Intrusion Detection System
trusted used by pcmcia-cs to see if a regular user can add and remove pcmcia cards

server_only_stuff:
fastcgi Add support for the FastCGI interface
fdftk Add supports for Adobe's FDF toolkit.
zeo Adds support for Zope Enterprise Objects

sound:
alsa Adds support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
arts Adds support for aRts: the KDE sound daemon
esd Adds support for media-sound/esound (Enlightened Sound Daemon)
jack Adds support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit
ladcca Adds Linux Audio Developer's Configuration and Connection API support (LADCCA)
nas Adds support for network audio sound
oss Adds support for OSS (Open Sound System)

system:
accessibility Adds support for accessibility (eg 'at-spi' library)
bindist Flag to enable or disable options for prebuilt (GRP) packages (eg. due to licensing issues)
debug Tells configure and the makefiles to build for debugging. Effects vary acrosss packages, but generally it will at least add -g to CFLAGS. Remember to set FEATURES+=nostrip too.
doc Adds extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc)
fam Enable FAM support (File Alteration Monitor)
icc Add support for the Intel C++ Compiler (does _not_ set $CC)
icc-pgo Enable PGO data generation or use when use icc.
jikes Compile Java source code with jikes (faster)
memlimit Adds memory usage limiting in supporting programs
nhc98 Use the nhc98 Haskell compiler instead of GHC if the package supports it
nocd Tells emerge to install all files required to run the application without a CD mounted
offensive Enables potentially offensive items in packages
readline enables support for libreadline, a GNU line-editing library that most everyone wants.
sdl Adds support for Simple Direct Layer (media library)
videos Tells portage to install optional video files (used in some games)
zlib Adds support for zlib (de)compression

video_cards:
3dfx Adds support for 3dfx video cards to XFree86. See: voodoo3
voodoo3 Adds support for 3Dfx's Voodoo3 video chipset, else defaults to Voodoo4/5 support if not in USE.

web_browsing:
emacs-w3 Add support for Emacs/W3 where applicable
libwww Adds libwww support (General purpose WEB API)
mozilla Adds mozilla support

widgets:
gtk Adds support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit)
gtk2 Use gtk+-2.0.0 over gtk+-1.2 in cases where a program supports both.
gtkhtml Adds support for gnome-extra/gtkhtml
lesstif Use lesstif over openmotif in cases where a program supports both
motif Adds motif support (x11-libs/openmotif x11-libs/lesstif)
qt Adds support for the Qt library.
tcltk Support for Tcl and/or Tk
Xaw3d Adds support of the 3d athena widget set
wxwindows Adds support for wxWindows/wxGTK

[smith84594]

Well....

if you forget a flag and emerge keeps giving you errors after you add it in, you can always do a emerge -e -D world....

...*expletive deleted*

Yeah. Good job. This would make gen2'ers lives a whole hell of alot nicer.
Definately should be submitted to the documentators.

Better yet, if they could somehow make include that as part of the default makefile (commented out of course), it would make system customization a snap

[chris.pickett]

So, who do I contact?

I've since discovered the whole NPTL thing (an undocumented USE flag), and just from the output of
# emerge --pretend --verbose system

there's a few other undocumented flags:

undocumented:
chroot ???
justify ???
nptl Add support for the Native Posix Thread Library
pwdb ???
skey ???
ucs2 ???
threads ???
X509 ???

Anybody wanna help fill in the ???'s?

[karnesky]

[karnesky]

You can also look at /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc or "euse -i [flag]"

[chris.pickett]

Thanks for pointing that out (I missed it in make.conf). I'll send a message to gentoo-dev, see what they say about if it's a good idea, where the best place to make the change would be, and if ufed could be changed to have use flag categories. Cheers!

[chris.pickett]

After some more experience installing ... I've come to think that the best way to deal with USE flags is to set them incrementally, when you need them, as determined by 'emerge -a' or 'emerge -p'. I think a lot of newbies probably obsess over whether they've got every single flag set properly, and whether they've looked at each flag (certainly I've seen a few other posts about it); it would be helpful if the install guide said something along the lines of "just worry about those USE flags affecting the packages you want to install NOW". Of course, categorization could still be useful, but I thought I would mention this in case any newcomers are reading this post.

[revertex]

Maybe a moderator can make this thead sticky?

[wolf31o2]

You can also look in /usr/portage/profiles/use.local.desc to see the flags that you are calling "undocumented". Gentoo has both global use flags and also local use flags. Local flags are ones that only affect a single package and are not deemed usable in other packages.
_________________
Ex-Gentoo Developer
Catalyst/Genkernel Development Lead
http://wolf31o2.org

[lolowen]

what about pic? it adds -fpic when compiling libaries

[cgreene]

Very useful! Just setup a new gentoo install on a laptop and I got my use flags setup much better than I did when I setup this machine.

[kaidon]

after a few gentoo installations, and after installing and compiling tons of things i never really needed/wanted i came up with this:

i start with

USE="-* x86"

and then, as chris.pickett pointed out, add more USE flags as i emerge stuff.
like this i can allways focus on what i'm installing right now.

the -* turns off all previously set flags, even the default ones.

cheers

[vlack]

[Molerat]

Well chris.pickett, I found your post very informative.

I'm one of the relative n00bs that is overwhelmed by use flags. And while there is a description associated with each, they do often require a bit of googling to figure out what they mean:

"atlas - adds support for atlas instead of blas in dev-lang/R"

That tells me nothing. It took a Google search to figure out just what atlas and blas were.

FWIW, I think Gentoo could use a bit more documentation by way of USE flags. Yes, we all get that they are powerful, but one has to do a bit of homework (Google, read the forums) before they one really gets a sense of how best to use them.

Anywho, thanks for the reference!

[beastmaster]

my USE flag just keep growing and growing

[Dreamsmith]

[someguy42]

Wow! I've been looking for something like this for quite a while! Great job, and thanks!
_________________
AAAHHH!!! He's got a BOARD with a NAIL in it!!!!

[dhurt]

Found this thread earlier today while browsing around and then come to find out I needed it tonight. Thanks for putting it together
_________________
"And isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony, anyway? I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, ooh ooh ooh, the sky's the limit!" -- The Tick

[DevSolar]

[RedRaider]

Nice list Yesterday I compared the USE flags in my make.default to the flags explained in the handbook and noticed that there were a few flags that weren't documented too:

bitmap-fonts
f77
font-server
fortran
truetype-fonts
type1-fonts

How about highlighting the USE flags in your list that are turned on by default in make.default?

[DevSolar]

If you refer to the Wiki list, just go for it and add / edit what you consider appropriate. That's what a Wiki is for!

As for me, I didn't find much time to continue with that list, as I'm working on several other projects that have priority right now, so your help will be much appreciated.

[Mattwolf7]

http://www.gentoo-portage.com/USE

Every package and their use flags and what the flags mean.

[griffinme]

"oggvorbis - Adds support for the OggVorbis audio encoding - DEPRECATED useflag"
"vorbis - Adds support for the OggVorbis audio codec"
From my use.desc

Great post

Been very helpful in getting my settings for make the way I want them.

I have an Athlon64, I keep seeing people posting with sse and 3Dnow and such in their USE flags. Aren't those covered by 'march=~k8'?
From the Gentoo AMD64 documentation;
"3.j. USE Flags That Are Ignored
The mmx, 3dnow, sse and sse2 USE flags are ignored on AMD64, since all AMD64 processors support those instruction sets. The are ignored because they enable 32bit assembly optimisation for some packages."
Are people just not aware of this or is the documentation wrong?

[petteyg359]

Hmm...

emerge --info | grep FEATURES

showed also 3dnowext and mmxext... I don't know if they're valid USE flags, but CPUID lists my Athlon XP 2700+ as having:
AMD 3DNow!
AMD 3DNow! Professional
AMD Enhanced 3DNow!
AMD Extended MMX
I assume 3dnow includes the top two, 3dnowext is AMD Enhanced 3DNow!, and mmxext is AMD Extended MMX. From doing "emerge --verbose" on stuff, I haven't seen either 3dnowext or mxxext listed, but they're in my make.conf anyway.