MikeTbob

I just want to make sure you two folks do know that you can specify use flags on the fly as opposed to making them permanent via /etc/make.conf
USE="gnome -kde" emerge -pv abiword
Here is a link that I like to scan periodically, just for reference.
http://linuxreviews.org/gentoo/emerge/

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gruven

Although you can do that, it won't stick when doing an "update -avuDN world". Most of the community and devs frown upon this use. If you want to do that, you need to set them by package in /etc/portage/package.use.

I usually set them in make.conf so that it can carry over to a different install.

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Jonathan183

MikeTbob - I did know that you could specify USE as a one-off but I have not taken this approach yet. I'd like a USE combination that works with everything if possible ... so ends up in make.conf. If I needed a particular combination for one or two packages then I'd probably take the approach gruven suggested ... but I have not needed to do that yet.
Thanks for the link ... bookmarked

i92guboj

Efectivamente, specifying USE flags on the command line is completely discouraged unless you do it for testing purpose (i.e. with -pv). That will only bring you trouble, because the system won't remember the settings.

If you want to set something global, use make.conf, if you want to set flags on a per package basis, use /etc/portage/package.use(/*).

Personally I only use package.use, a very big one I have no USE declaration in make.conf. They are very fine tuned so I don't think that posting it here will do any good at all.

Jonathan183

Did you start off using make.conf but find it did not give you the control you wanted and switched to package.use ... or did you start with package.use only?

i92guboj

I started using make.conf, just like the average Joe. Then I learned about /etc/portage/* and with the time started to use it more and more as I profiled more and more my setup. Once day I realized that I had a very big USE in make.conf, and a very big package.use, removed the make.conf USE clause and after emerge -auDvN world I realized that only a few dozen packages would change if I removed the make.conf stuff.

So I made the relevant changes in package.use and removed the stuff in make.conf. I find it easier to manage now that package.use is there. Of course, I've written it in years and years of Gentoo. Writing one from scratch just to take rid of the make.conf stuff would be an insane amount of manual and tedious work.

Bear in mind that I rarely reinstall. Gentoo has rendered reinstallations something of the past. The last time I reinstalled it was to migrate from x86 to x86_64, like three years ago.

Jonathan183

i92guboj thanks for making that clear

MikeTbob

I'd like to mention that i92guboj knows what he is talking about more than I do. I believe he is also a Moderator on the Gentoo.org forums. (I Tip my Hat).

I didn't intend for anyone to think I meant to use the USE flags on the fly all the time, I just wanted to let you know that it is possible and sometimes helpful.

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i92guboj

Yes, I am a moderator on the Gentoo forums. But that doesn't grant me infallibility nor any special knowledge, just some extra pain doses I know one or two things because I've been using Gentoo since 2004.1 or so if my memory serves correctly, that's all.

I can be wrong just like anyone else, and I have no problem admitting my errors and learning from them, it's much more productive for me than giving advice

I just wanted to make that clear for a simple reason: a lot of people start setting USE from the command line, and after that they have all kind of colorful problems, and some packages behave erratically or work only intermittently. That's why all the developers and experienced users disregards the usage of USE on command line, unless it's only to do a quick check, with emerge -pv or something similar.

Regards

darkrose0510

I just got my desktop re-setup (wanted to try out ext4), so here's the USE flags for it:
package.use also has gnome for gtk (it wouldn't compile without it), and xinerama for fluxbox (so maximising windows doesn't stretch across both screens).

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