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USE Flags

Flag	Description	Used in Ebuild(s)
3dfx	Enable support for Voodoo chipsets, also called as 3DFX and TDFX	11
3dnow	Adds support for 3dnow multimedia processor instructions	16
a52	Enables support for decoding ATSC A/52 streams used in DVD	7
aac	Enables support for MPEG-4 AAC Audio	46
aalib	Adds support for media-libs/aalib (ASCII-Graphics Library)	11
accessibility	Adds support for accessibility (eg 'at-spi' library)	1
acl	Adds support for Access Control Lists	4
acpi	Adds support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface	32
adabas	Adds support for the Adabas database engine	3
adns	Adds support for the adns DNS client library	1
afs	Adds OpenAFS support (distributed file system)	7
aim	Enable AIM IM protocol support	0
alsa	Adds support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)	244
altivec	Adds support for optimizations for G4 and G5/ppc970 processors	338
ao	Use libao audio output library for sound playback	12
apache2	Add Apache2 support	15
apm	Adds APM (Advanced Power Management) support	5
arts	Adds support for aRts: the KDE sound daemon	446
atm	Enable Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol support	5
audiofile	Adds support for libaudiofile where applicable	3
avahi	Add avahi/Zeroconf support	22
bash-completion	Enable bash-completion support	30
bcmath	Adds support for libbcmath	3
berkdb	Adds support for sys-libs/db (Berkeley DB for MySQL)	31
bidi	Enables bidirectional language support	3
bindist	Flag to enable or disable options for prebuilt (GRP) packages (eg. due to licensing issues)	8
birdstep	Adds support for the Birdstep Database Server	3
blas	Adds support for the virtual/blas numerical library	3
bluetooth	Enables Bluetooth Support	10
bootstrap	!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during original system bootstrapping [make stage2]	305
boundschecking	Adds the bounds checking patch by Haj Ten Brugge, this will DISABLE the hardened PIE+SSP patches	0
branding	Enable Gentoo specific branding	1
bsf	Enable support for Apache Bean Scripting Framework (dev-java/bsf)	0
build	!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used for creating build images and the first half of bootstrapping [make stage1]	440
bzip2	Use the bzlib compression library	8
cairo	Enable support for the cairo graphics library	7
calendar	Adds support for calendars (not using mcal!)	5
canna	Adds support for the Canna kana to kanji conversion engine	4
caps	Use Linux capabilities library to control privilege	9
cdb	Adds support for the CDB database engine from the author of qmail	14
cddb	Access cddb servers to retrieve and submit information about compact disks	9
cdinstall	Copies files from the CD rather than asking the user to copy them, mostly used with games	20
cdparanoia	Enables cdparanoia (audio CD ripper) support	4
cdr	Adds support for CD writer hardware	1
cgi	Add CGI script support	9
chasen	Enable chasen (Japanese Morphological Analysis System) support	1
cjk	Adds support for Multi-byte character languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)	19
clamav	Adds support for Clam AntiVirus software (usually with a plugin)	5
cracklib	Support for cracklib strong password checking	1
crypt	Add support for encryption -- using mcrypt or gpg where applicable	43
cscope	Enables cscope interface -- in vim for example	0
css	Enables ripping of encrypted DVDs	0
ctype	Enables ctype functions	3
cups	Add support for CUPS (Common Unix Printing System)	26
curl	Adds support for client-side URL transfer library	44
curlwrappers	Adds support for using curl in streams	1
cvs	Enable CVS (Concurrent Versions System) integration	5
cxx	Builds support for C++ (bindings, extra libraries, code generation, ...)	0
db2	Enables support for IBM DB2 database server	7
dbase	Adds support for dbase file format	3
dbm	Adds support for generic DBM databases	0
dbmaker	Adds support for dbmaker database server	3
dbus	Enable dbus support for anything that needs it (gpsd, gnomemeeting, etc)	52
dbx	Adds database abstraction layer	7
debug	Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/qa/backtraces.xml	1481
dedicated	Adds support for dedicated game servers (some packages do not provide clients and servers at the same time)	56
dga	Adds DGA (Direct Graphic Access) support for X	7
directfb	Adds support for DirectFB layer (library for FB devices)	19
djvu	support DjVu, a PDF-like document format esp. suited for scanned documents	9
doc	Adds extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc)	1952
dri	Enable direct rendering: used for accelerated 3D and some 2D, like DMA	13
dts	Enables DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder support	7
dv	Enables support for a codec used by many camcorders	6
dvb	Adds support for DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)	5
dvd	Adds support for DVDs	14
dvdr	Adds support for DVD writer hardware (e.g. in xcdroast)	1
dvdread	Enables usage of Ogle's libdvdread for DVD playback	3
eds	Enables support for Evolution-Data-Server (EDS)	14
emacs	Adds support for GNU Emacs	27
emboss	Adds support for the European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite	0
empress	Adds support for the Empress database server	3
empress-bcs	Adds local access support for the Empress database server	3
encode	Adds support for encoding of audio or video files	7
enscript	Add enscript support to colourize code stored in the repository	4
esd	Adds support for media-sound/esound (Enlightened Sound Daemon)	56
esoob	Adds support for Easysoft OOD database	3
evo	Adds support for mail-client/evolution	2
examples	Install examples, usually source code	145
exif	Adds support for reading EXIF headers from JPEG and TIFF images	12
expat	Enable the use of dev-libs/expat for XML parsing	6
fam	Enable FAM (File Alteration Monitor) support	10
fastcgi	Add support for the FastCGI interface	12
fbcon	Adds framebuffer support for the console, via the kernel	16
ffmpeg	Enable ffmpeg-based audio/video codec support	31
fftw	Use FFTW library for computing Fourier transforms	13
firebird	Adds support for the Firebird relational database	9
firefox	Build against Firefox instead of Seamonkey/Mozilla	14
flac	Adds support for FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec	67
flatfile	Adds dbm support for flat files	3
fltk	Adds support for the Fast Light Toolkit gui interface	6
fontconfig	Support for configuring and customizing font access via media-libs/fontconfig	1
foomaticdb	Adds support for the foomatic printing driver database	0
fortran	Adds support for fortran (formerly f77)	314
freetds	Adds support for the TDS protocol to connect to MSSQL/Sybase databases	7
freewnn	Adds support for FreeWnn kana to kanji conversion engine	4
frontbase	Adds support for the frontbase sql server	3
ftp	Adds FTP (File Transfer Protocol) support	5
gcj	Enable building with gcj (The GNU Compiler for the Javatm Programming Language)	451
gd	Adds support for media-libs/gd (to generate graphics on the fly)	8
gd-external	Use the external version of gd rather than the bundled one (possibly dangerous)	3
gdbm	Adds support for sys-libs/gdbm (GNU database libraries)	22
geoip	Add geoip support for country and city lookup based on IPs	2
ggi	Adds support for media-libs/libggi (non-X video api/drivers)	3
gif	Adds GIF image support	25
gimp	Build a plugin for the GIMP	0
ginac	Adds sci-mathematics/ginac (symbolic math) support	0
glut	Build an OpenGL plugin using the GLUT library	4
gmp	Adds support for dev-libs/gmp (GNU MP library)	8
gnome	Adds GNOME support	130
gnome-keyring	Enable support for storing passwords via gnome-keyring	1
gnuplot	Enable support for gnuplot (data and function plotting)	1
gnustep	Adds integration with GNUstep environment	0
gnutls	Adds support for net-libs/gnutls (TLS 1.0 and SSL 3.0 support)	26
gphoto2	Adds digital camera support	0
gpm	Adds support for sys-libs/gpm (Console-based mouse driver)	12
gps	Adds support for Global Positioning System	5
graphviz	Adds support for the Graphviz library	9
gsl	Use the GNU scientific library for calculations	5
gstreamer	Adds support for media-libs/gstreamer (Streaming media)	37
gtk	Adds support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit)	449
gtkhtml	Adds support for gnome-extra/gtkhtml	6
guile	Adds support for the guile Scheme interpreter	9
hal	Enable Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) support	38
hardened	activate default security enhancements for toolchain (gcc, glibc, binutils)	320
hddtemp	Enable monitoring of hdd temperature (app-admin/hddtemp)	3
hdf5	Adds support for the Hierarchical Data Format v5	4
htmlhandbook	Enable HTML handbooks generation for KDE4.	0
ibm	Add support for IBM ppc64 specific systems	5
iconv	Enable support for the iconv character set conversion library	17
icq	Enable ICQ IM protocol support	0
idn	Enable support for Internationalized Domain Names	3
ieee1394	Enable FireWire/iLink IEEE1394 support (dv, camera, ...)	10
imagemagick	Enables support for Imagemagick (image converter)	14
imap	Adds support for IMAP (Internet Mail Application Protocol)	15
imlib	Adds support for imlib, an image loading and rendering library	4
inifile	Adds dbm support for .ini files	3
innodb	Adds innodb support for mySQL (transaction support)	2
interbase	Adds support for Interbase database	5
iodbc	Adds support for iODBC library	5
ipod	Enable support for iPod device access	6
ipv6	Adds support for IP version 6	145
jabber	Enable jabber IM protocol support	23
jack	Adds support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit	119
java	Adds support for Java	38
java5	Use Java 1.5 to build package || ( reduced deps, 1.5 features, source/target 1.5 )	6
java6	Use Java 1.6 to build package || ( reduced deps, 1.6 features, source/target 1.6 )	2
javascript	Enables javascript support	2
jbig	enables jbig-kit support for tiff, Hylafax, ImageMagick, etc	1
jingle	Enables voice calls for jabber	5
joystick	Add support for joysticks in all packages	17
jpeg	Adds JPEG image support	62
jpeg2k	Support for JPEG 2000, a wavelet-based image compression format	7
kde	Adds support for kde-base/kde (K Desktop Enviroment)	60
kdeenablefinal	EXPERIMENTAL: KDE ebuilds will use the enable-final flag, yielding compilation speedups at the cost of heavy mem usage and potentially causing problems. We strongly discourage setting this	230
kdehiddenvisibility	Makes KDE symbols hidden by default, requires GCC 4.1 (experimental)	7
kdeprefix	Makes a KDE prefixed install into /usr/kde/$ if enabled or into /usr (FHS compatible) otherwise	0
kerberos	Adds kerberos support	38
kolab	Adds support for the Kolab groupware server	4
kontact	Enable support for the KDE personal information manager (kde-base/kdepim*)	0
krb4	Adds optional kerberos 4 compatibility support	12
ladcca	Adds Linux Audio Developer's Configuration and Connection API support (LADCCA) - DEPRECATED, will be replaced by lash	0
ladspa	Enables the ability to support ladspa plugins	21
lame	Prefer using LAME libraries for MP3 encoding support	5
lapack	Adds support for the virtual/lapack numerical library	5
lash	Adds LASH Audio Session Handler support	25
latex	Adds support for LaTeX (typesetting package)	64
lcms	Adds lcms support (color management engine)	16
ldap	Adds LDAP support (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)	64
libcaca	Add support for colored ASCII-art graphics	5
libedit	Use the libedit library (replacement for readline)	4
libgda	Adds GNOME Data Access support	0
libnotify	Enable desktop notification support	13
libsamplerate	Build with support for converting sample rates using libsamplerate	6
libwww	Adds libwww support (General purpose WEB API)	1
lirc	Adds support for lirc (Linux's Infra-Red Remote Control)	25
livecd	!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during livecd building	2
lm_sensors	Adds linux lm_sensors (hardware sensors) support	4
lua	Enable Lua scripting support	10
lzo	Enables support for lzo compression	2
m17n-lib	Enable m17n-lib support	0
mad	Adds support for mad (high-quality mp3 decoder library and cli frontend)	33
maildir	Adds support for maildir (~/.maildir) style mail spools	2
mailwrapper	Adds mailwrapper support to allow multiple MTAs to be installed	11
matroska	Adds support for the matroska container format (extensions .mkv, .mka and .mks)	3
matrox	Adds Matrox MGA support to mplayer	1
mbox	Adds support for mbox (/var/spool/mail) style mail spools	14
mcve	Support for the MCVE credit card payment system	3
memlimit	Adds memory usage limiting in supporting programs	2
mhash	Adds support for the mhash library	3
migemo	Enables migemo support for Japanese	0
mikmod	Adds libmikmod support to allow playing of SoundTracker-style music files	5
milter	Adds sendmail mail filter (milter) support	0
mime	Adds MIME support	0
minimal	Install a very minimal build (disables, for example, plugins, fonts, most drivers, non-critical features)	27
mmap	Adds mmap (memory map) support	3
mmx	Adds support for optimizations for Pentium MMX and Athlon class processors	71
mng	Adds support for libmng (MNG images)	19
modplug	Adds libmodplug support	16
mono	Build Mono bindings to support dotnet type stuff	3
motif	Adds support for the Motif toolkit	8
mozilla	Adds support for the Mozilla web-browser	3
mp3	Add support for reading mp3 files	56
mpeg	Adds libmpeg3 support to various packages	7
mpi	Adds MPI (Message Passing Interface) layer to the apps that support it	19
mplayer	Enable mplayer support for playback or encoding	8
msn	Enable MSN Messenger IM protocol support	2
msql	Adds support for the MSQL database server	3
mssql	Adds support for Microsoft SQL Server database	5
mule	Adds multi-language support to XEmacs	5
multilib	On 64bit systems, if you want to be able to compile 32bit and 64bit binaries	326
musepack	Enable support for the musepack audio codec	37
musicbrainz	Lookup audio metadata using MusicBrainz community service (musicbrainz.org)	3
mysql	Adds mySQL Database support	125
mysqli	Adds support for the improved mySQL libraries	2
nas	Adds support for network audio sound	24
ncurses	Adds ncurses support (console display library)	57
netboot	Enables network booting	4
netcdf	Enable NetCDF data format support	0
networkmanager	Enable net-misc/networkmanager support	10
neXt	Enable neXt toolkit	5
nis	Support for NIS/YP services	21
nls	Adds Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)	758
nntp	Add support for newsgroups (Network News Transfer Protocol)	7
nocd	Install all files required to run the application without a CD mounted	1
nocxx	Disable support for C++ (DON'T USE THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING)	313
nptl	Enable support for Native POSIX Threads Library, the new threading module (requires linux-2.6 or better usually)	17
nsplugin	Builds plugins for Netscape compatible browsers	14
ocaml	Adds support/bindings for the Ocaml language	1
ocamlopt	Enables ocamlopt support (ocaml native code compiler) -- Produces faster programs (Warning: you have to disable/enable it at a global scale)	0
oci8	Adds Oracle 8 Database Support	6
oci8-instant-client	Use dev-db/oracle-instantclient-basic as Oracle provider instead of requiring a full Oracle server install	3
odbc	Adds ODBC Support (Open DataBase Connectivity)	33
offensive	Enables potentially offensive items in packages	7
ofx	Enable support for importing (and exporting) OFX (Open Financial eXchange) data files	3
ogg	Adds support for the Ogg container format (commonly used by Vorbis, Theora and flac)	36
old-linux	Add support for linux-2.4 and older	0
openal	Adds support for the Open Audio Library	30
openexr	Support for the OpenEXR graphics file format	7
opengl	Adds support for OpenGL (3D graphics)	136
openmp	Build support for the OpenMP (support parallel computing), requires >=sys-devel/gcc-4.2 built with USE="openmp"	142
oracle	Enable Oracle Database support	3
osc	Enables support for Open Sound Control	13
oscar	Enable Oscar (AIM/ICQ) IM protocol support	0
oss	Adds support for OSS (Open Sound System)	135
pam	Adds support PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) - DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip	68
pch	Enable precompiled header support for faster compilation at the expense of disk space and memory (>=sys-devel/gcc-3.4 only)	1
pcmcia	Adds support for PCMCIA slots/devices found on laptop computers	0
pcntl	Adds support for process creation functions	3
pcre	Adds support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions	14
pda	Adds support for portable devices	2
pdf	Adds general support for PDF (Portable Document Format), this replaces the pdflib and cpdflib flags	17
perl	Adds support/bindings for the Perl language	58
php	Include support for the PHP language	1
pic	Build Position Independent Code. Do not utilize this flag unless you know what you're doing	29
plasma	Build optional plasma widgets that require kde-base/libplasma	0
plotutils	Adds plotutils support to gnuplot (library for 2-D vector graphics)	1
png	Adds support for libpng (PNG images)	55
portaudio	Adds support for the crossplatform portaudio audio API	32
posix	Adds support for POSIX-compatible functions	3
postgres	Adds support for the postgresql database	101
ppds	Adds support for automatically generated ppd (printing driver) files	1
prelude	Adds support/bindings for the Prelude Intrusion Detection System	5
profile	Adds support for software performance analysis (will likely vary from ebuild to ebuild)	499
pulseaudio	Adds support for PulseAudio sound server	14
python	Adds support/bindings for the Python language	99
qdbm	Adds support for the qdbm (Quick Database Manager) library	4
qmail-spp	Adds support for qmail SMTP plugins	1
qt3	Adds support for the Qt GUI/Application Toolkit version 3.x	22
qt4	Adds support for the Qt GUI/Application Toolkit version 4.x	16
quicktime	Adds support for OpenQuickTime	9
radius	Adds support for RADIUS authentication	18
raw	Add support for raw image formats	1
rdesktop	Adds support for the remote desktop protocol, usually used to connect to Windows servers	0
readline	Enables support for libreadline, a GNU line-editing library that almost everyone wants	42
recode	Enables support for the GNU recode library	3
rss	Enables support for RSS feeds	4
ruby	Adds support/bindings for the Ruby language	46
samba	Adds support for SAMBA (Windows File and Printer sharing)	21
sapdb	Adds support for SAP DB	4
sasl	Adds support for the Simple Authentication and Security Layer	25
savedconfig	Use this to restore your config from /etc/portage/savedconfig $/$. Make sure you USE flags allow for approprate dependencies	11
scanner	Adds support for scanner hardware (e.g. build the sane frontend in kdegraphics)	12
sdl	Adds support for Simple Direct Layer (media library)	80
seamonkey	Adds support for the Seamonkey web-browser	8
selinux	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur	55
session	Adds persistent session support	6
sharedext	Adds support for building shared extensions in PHP	3
sharedmem	Adds support for shared memory use	3
shorten	Adds support for the shorten audio compressor	2
simplexml	support for SimpleXML	1
skey	Enable S/Key (Single use password) authentication support	6
slang	Adds support for the slang text display library (it's like ncurses, but different)	1
slp	Adds Service Locator Protocol support	0
smartcard	Enables smartcard support	2
smp	Enable support for multiprocessors or multicore systems	5
sndfile	Adds support for libsndfile	16
snmp	Adds support for the Simple Network Management Protocol if available	26
soap	Adds support for SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)	1
sockets	Adds support for tcp/ip sockets	3
socks5	Adds support for the socks5 proxy	8
solid	Adds support for the Solid database engine	4
source	Zip the sources and install them	244
sox	Adds support for Sound eXchange (SoX)	1
speex	Adds support for the speex audio codec (used for speech)	47
spell	Adds dictionary support	52
spl	Adds support for the Standard PHP Library	1
sqlite	Adds support for sqlite - embedded sql database	82
sqlite3	Adds support for sqlite3 - embedded sql database	15
sse	fast floating point optimization for PentiumIII+ class chips	41
sse2	faster floating point optimization for SSE2 capable chips	13
ssl	Adds support for Secure Socket Layer connections	258
startup-notification	Enable application startup event feedback mechanism	4
static	!!do not set this during bootstrap!! Causes binaries to be statically linked instead of dynamically	115
subversion	Enable subversion (version control system) support	5
suid	Enable setuid root program, with potential security risks	3
svg	Adds support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)	31
svga	Adds support for SVGAlib (graphics library)	5
sybase	Adds support for the Sybase SQL Database Server	4
sybase-ct	Adds support for Sybase-CT	3
symlink	Force kernel ebuilds to automatically update the /usr/src/linux symlink	141
syslog	Enables support for syslog	3
sysvipc	Support for System V-compatible inter-process communication	3
szip	Use the szip compression library	2
taglib	Enable tagging support with taglib	1
tcl	Adds support the Tcl language	19
tcpd	Adds support for TCP wrappers	14
test	Workaround to pull in packages needed to run with FEATURES=test. Portage-2.1.2 handles this internally, so don't set it in make.conf/package.use anymore	499
theora	Adds support for the Theora Video Compression Codec	21
threads	Adds threads support for various packages. Usually pthreads	52
tidy	Adds support for HTML Tidy	2
tiff	Adds support for the TIFF image format	27
timidity	Build with Timidity++ (MIDI sequencer) support	15
tk	Adds support for Tk GUI toolkit	15
tokenizer	Adds support for the PHP file parser	3
truetype	Adds support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fonts	40
uclibc	Enable uclibc specific patches and build or link uclibc	2
unicode	Adds support for Unicode	52
usb	Adds USB support to applications that have optional USB support (e.g. cups)	19
v4l	Enables video4linux support	10
v4l2	Enable video4linux2 support	7
vanilla	Do not add extra patches which change default behaviour; DO NOT USE THIS ON A GLOBAL SCALE as the severity of the meaning changes drastically	346
vcd	Video CD support	4
vhosts	Adds support for installing web-based applications into a virtual-hosting environment	140
videos	Install optional video files (used in some games)	2
vim-syntax	Pulls in related vim syntax scripts	21
vnc	Enable VNC (remote desktop viewer) support	0
voodoo3	Adds support for 3Dfx's Voodoo3 video chipset, else defaults to Voodoo4/5 support if not in USE	0
vorbis	Adds support for the OggVorbis audio codec	103
wavpack	Add support for wavpack audio compression tools	10
wddx	Adds support for Web Distributed Data eXchange	3
wifi	Enable wireless network functions	11
win32codecs	use win32codecs package for dll avi decoding support (wmv and what not)	5
wmf	Adds support for the Windows Metafile vector image format	13
wxwindows	Adds support for wxWidgets/wxGTK GUI toolkit	5
X	Adds support for X11	183
x264	Enable h264 encoding using x264	6
xattr	Adds support for extended attributes (filesystem-stored metadata)	4
Xaw3d	Adds support for the 3d athena widget set	8
xcb	Support the X C-language Binding, a replacement for Xlib	10
xcomposite	Enable support for the Xorg composite extension	4
xemacs	Add support for XEmacs	6
xface	Adds xface support used to allow a small image of xface format to be included in an email via the header 'X-Face'	5
xine	Add support for the XINE movie libraries	13
xinerama	Add support for the xinerama X11 extension, which allows you to stretch your display across multiple monitors	450
xinetd	Add support for the xinetd super-server	4
xml	Add support for XML files	45
xmlrpc	Support for xml-rpc library	4
xosd	Sends display using the X On Screen Display library	11
xpm	Adds support for XPM graphics format	8
xprint	Support for xprint, http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xprint/	7
xscreensaver	Adds support for XScreenSaver extension	6
xsl	Check/Support flag for XSL library (version 1)	3
xulrunner	Build native browser integration against xulrunner instead of firefox or seamonkey	13
xv	Adds in optional support for the Xvideo extension (an X API for video playback)	20
xvid	Adds support for xvid.org's open-source mpeg-4 codec	6
yahoo	Enable Yahoo Messenger IM protocol support	1
yaz	Adds in optional support for the Z39.50 Protocol for Information Retrieval (YAZ)	3
zeroconf	Support for DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD)	0
zlib	Adds support for zlib (de)compression	55

Local USE Flags