/portage/packages.use doesn't exist

[BinarySpike]

Just a quick question, all the tutorials I read say to put my USE flags into
/etc/portage/package.use

However on my computer the only packages.use is
/usr/portage/profiles/base/package.use


/etc/portage/ doesn't exist for me. So, if I create it, will it be basically a custom USE Flag file thingy? (so I don't have to edit /usr/portage/profiles/base/package.use, because it contains some default flag stuff)

Thanks,
Nathan

[MikeTbob]

You need to put your USE flags in /etc/make.conf

[gruven]

As root, do this:

mkdir /etc/portage && touch /etc/portage/package.use

You can also make package.use a directory and put separate files for different programs with specific use flags in that directory. Either way, it is easier to set use flags for specific programs this way.

Also, you probably really need to read the documentation on portage and use flags if you plan on sticking with gentoo very long.
Working with Gentoo — Gentoo Linux Documentation

[i92guboj]

Just a quick question, all the tutorials I read say to put my USE flags into
/etc/portage/package.use

However on my computer the only packages.use is
/usr/portage/profiles/base/package.use


/etc/portage/ doesn't exist for me. So, if I create it, will it be basically a custom USE Flag file thingy? (so I don't have to edit /usr/portage/profiles/base/package.use, because it contains some default flag stuff)

Thanks,
Nathan

In Gentoo there are many places where the USE flags can be defined.

The ones under /usr/portage are tied to the profiles, and changing them makes you no good, since the next time you emerge --sync all the changes there will be lost.

Then there's /etc/make.conf, you can define global USE flags there. This is generally used to set flags that are being to be used in all (or at least most of) your packages.

Then there's /etc/portage/package.use. package.use can be a file or a directory. If it's a file, then you can specify use flags like this:

category/package <list of use flags>

If it's a directory, then all the files inside that directory will be read (same syntax). This second method lets you separate use flags for different sets of packages, in case you want to organize them a bit better. For the rest there's no difference.

In the last place, there's always the possibility to specify them on command line, which I don't advise unless it's with -pv for testing purposes. This last method doesn't record the USE flag, which means that in the next update they might be changed without a warning.

All this methods have been listed by precedence. The later ones take precedence over the previous.

Oh, and about /etc/portage/* stuff, if it doesn't exist, just create it.