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
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