2008-06-03, 08:46 PM
Hi!
Gentoo can be a little bit troublesome to figure out when you start out with it (I remember those days..). Lets run through the files:
Portage has a default configuration file which is /etc/make.globals. This file should never be edited but it can be a good reference for settings in portage.
Then there is the profile files, every different architecture has its own profile. These profiles represent the defaults for portage that are dependent on arch. There is a symlink /etc/make.profile/ to a directory in the portage tree, which contains multiple files. Again you should not edit these files, these are just setting defaults. The USE flag defaults are in /etc/make.profile/make.defaults.
If you want to alter anything to make it differ from the defaults then you make a file called /etc/make.conf. This file is your master configuration for portage. All the changes you want to make go in here, all the global USE flag changes you want .. go in here too.
There is also some other files you can make, which allow even finer control of portage:
- /etc/portage/package.mask - stop portage from ever installing packages.
- /etc/portage/package.unmask - allow portage to install a file, even if it isn't recommended
- /etc/portage/package.keywords - allow you to install packages which are marked as unstable/untested on your arch.
- /etc/portage/package.use - alter a USE flag for just one package, rather than for the whole system
You won't have any of those files by default, you'd need to make.
In conclusion, if you are just starting out with gentoo I would highly recommend that you stick to editing just /etc/make.conf.
An example of adding a flag and removing another is like this:
Code:
USE='flagon -flagoff'Make sure you don't put a new line in there, all on one line.
Hope that helps you, welcome to the forums / Linux and gentoo!