Re: [gentoo-user] Re: confessions of a current USE=*

[Philip Webb]

160414 waltdnes@××××××××.org wrote:
> I used to use USE='-* blah blah blah".  My rule of thumb was to compare
> * how many "foobar" entries I'd have to make in package.use,
> if I didn't include "foobar" in make.conf, versus
> * how many "-foobar" entries I'd have to make in package.use,
> if I did include "foobar" in make.conf
> Whichever way resulted in fewer entries in package.use was the way I'd go.
> I effectively built my own custom profile.

> I've now switched to the conventional style, without "-*",
> but I now have a lot of "-foobar" flags in USE, like so
> USE="10bit 12bit X apng bindist ffmpeg gles2 jpeg netifrc png snappy szip truetype x264 x265 xorg -acl -berkdb -caps -chatzilla -cracklib -crypt -filecaps -gallium -gdbm -gmp-autoupdate -graphite -gstreamer -iconv -introspection -ipc -iptables -ipv6 -libav -llvm -manpager -nls -openmp -pam -pch -roaming -sendmail -spell -tcpd -udev -udisks -unicode -upower -uuid -xinerama"

I'm persisting with '-*', but I've never understood profiles
& I've never done 'emerge world' without '-p',
so I've always had detailed control over what it getting installed.
In my home-made list of installed pkgs I note with 'USE' those
which have a custom flag in  package.use  & check when updating.

Occasionally, a new flag trips me up, but it's fairly easy to recover
once the location of the problem has been determined.

My own complaint re USE flags is the all-too-meagre output of 'euses' :

  root:502 ~> euses gtk3
    app-editors/bluefish:gtk3 - Enable GTK3 interface (default)
    app-editors/emacs:gtk3 - Prefer version 3 of the GIMP Toolkit to version 2 (x11-libs/gtk+)
    app-editors/emacs-vcs:gtk3 - Prefer version 3 of the GIMP Toolkit to version 2 (x11-libs/gtk+)
    app-editors/mousepad:gtk3 - Use GTK+3 instead of GTK+2
    app-i18n/fcitx:gtk3 - Install input method module for GTK+ 3
    app-i18n/fcitx-configtool:gtk3 - Use GTK+3 instead of 2
    app-i18n/ibus:gtk3 - Enable support for gtk+3
    app-i18n/ibus-unikey:gtk3 - Enable support for gtk+3
    app-i18n/imsettings:gtk3 - Enable support for x11-libs/gtk+:3
    app-i18n/scim:gtk3 - Enable support for x11-libs/gtk+:3
    app-i18n/scim-anthy:gtk3 - Enable support for x11-libs/gtk+:3
    app-i18n/uim:gtk3 - Enable support for x11-libs/gtk+:3
    ... [ 37  similarly useless descriptions]

This urgently needs cleaning up, like much of Emerge's output.

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