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USE Flags

Flag	Description	Used in Ebuild(s)
3dfx	Enable support for Voodoo chipsets, also called as 3DFX and TDFX	6
3dnow	Adds support for 3dnow multimedia processor instructions	60
a52	Enables support for decoding ATSC A/52 streams used in DVD	15
aac	Enables support for MPEG-4 AAC Audio	80
aalib	Adds support for media-libs/aalib (ASCII-Graphics Library)	43
accessibility	Adds support for accessibility (eg 'at-spi' library)	20
acl	Adds support for Access Control Lists	127
acpi	Adds support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface	30
adns	Adds support for the adns DNS client library	11
afs	Adds OpenAFS support (distributed file system)	31
aim	Enable AIM IM protocol support	0
alsa	Adds support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)	394
altivec	Adds support for optimizations for G4 and G5/ppc970 processors	134
ao	Use libao audio output library for sound playback	25
apache2	Add Apache2 support	38
apm	Adds APM (Advanced Power Management) support	6
aqua	Include support for the Mac OS X Aqua (Carbon/Cocoa) GUI	1331
atm	Enable Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol support	47
audiofile	Adds support for libaudiofile where applicable	15
avahi	Add avahi/Zeroconf support	87
bash-completion	Enable bash-completion support	210
bcmath	Adds support for libbcmath	4
berkdb	Adds support for sys-libs/db (Berkeley DB for MySQL)	136
bidi	Enables bidirectional language support	40
bindist	Flag to enable or disable options for prebuilt (GRP) packages (eg. due to licensing issues)	105
blas	Adds support for the virtual/blas numerical library	7
bluetooth	Enables Bluetooth Support	110
bootstrap	!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during original system bootstrapping [make stage2]	36
boundschecking	Adds the bounds checking patch by Haj Ten Brugge, this will DISABLE the hardened PIE+SSP patches	2
branding	Enable Gentoo specific branding	17
bsf	Enable support for Apache Bean Scripting Framework (dev-java/bsf)	9
build	!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used for creating build images and the first half of bootstrapping [make stage1]	258
bzip2	Use the bzlib compression library	126
cairo	Enable support for the cairo graphics library	71
calendar	Adds support for calendars (not using mcal!)	15
canna	Adds support for the Canna kana to kanji conversion engine	15
caps	Use Linux capabilities library to control privilege	93
cdb	Adds support for the CDB database engine from the author of qmail	23
cdda	Adds Compact Disk Digital Audio (Standard Audio CD) support	36
cddb	Access cddb servers to retrieve and submit information about compact disks	24
cdinstall	Copies files from the CD rather than asking the user to copy them, mostly used with games	22
cdparanoia	Enables cdparanoia (audio CD ripper) support	15
cdr	Adds support for CD writer hardware	16
cgi	Add CGI script support	31
cjk	Adds support for Multi-byte character languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)	59
clamav	Adds support for Clam AntiVirus software (usually with a plugin)	25
coreaudio	Build the CoreAudio driver on Mac OS X systems	12
cracklib	Support for cracklib strong password checking	20
crypt	Add support for encryption -- using mcrypt or gpg where applicable	173
cscope	Enables cscope interface -- in vim for example	22
css	Enables reading of encrypted DVDs	8
ctype	Enables ctype functions	0
cups	Add support for CUPS (Common Unix Printing System)	136
curl	Adds support for client-side URL transfer library	138
curlwrappers	Adds support for using curl in streams	4
custom-cflags	Build with user-specified CFLAGS (unsupported)	140
cvs	Enable CVS (Concurrent Versions System) integration	39
cxx	Builds support for C++ (bindings, extra libraries, code generation, ...)	89
dbi	Enable dev-db/libdbi (database-independent abstraction layer) support	15
dbm	Adds support for generic DBM databases	6
dbus	Enable dbus support for anything that needs it (gpsd, gnomemeeting, etc)	279
dbx	Adds database abstraction layer	3
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	4080
dedicated	Adds support for dedicated game servers (some packages do not provide clients and servers at the same time)	138
dga	Adds DGA (Direct Graphic Access) support for X	26
directfb	Adds support for DirectFB layer (library for FB devices)	50
djvu	support DjVu, a PDF-like document format esp. suited for scanned documents	18
doc	Adds extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globally	5267
dri	Enable direct rendering: used for accelerated 3D and some 2D, like DMA	23
dts	Enables DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder support	13
dv	Enables support for a codec used by many camcorders	12
dvb	Adds support for DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)	24
dvd	Adds support for DVDs	21
dvdr	Adds support for DVD writer hardware (e.g. in xcdroast)	10
eds	Enables support for Evolution-Data-Server (EDS)	42
emacs	Adds support for GNU Emacs	252
emboss	Adds support for the European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite	14
encode	Adds support for encoding of audio or video files	15
enscript	Add enscript support to colourize code stored in the repository	2
esd	Adds support for media-sound/esound (Enlightened Sound Daemon)	68
evo	Adds support for mail-client/evolution	9
examples	Install examples, usually source code	1341
exif	Adds support for reading EXIF headers from JPEG and TIFF images	61
expat	Enable the use of dev-libs/expat for XML parsing	42
fam	Enable FAM (File Alteration Monitor) support	55
fastcgi	Add support for the FastCGI interface	21
fbcon	Adds framebuffer support for the console, via the kernel	67
ffmpeg	Enable ffmpeg-based audio/video codec support	93
fftw	Use FFTW library for computing Fourier transforms	59
firebird	Adds support for the Firebird relational database	50
firefox	Build against Firefox instead of Seamonkey/Mozilla	2
flac	Adds support for FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec	114
flatfile	Adds dbm support for flat files	5
fltk	Adds support for the Fast Light Toolkit gui interface	22
fontconfig	Support for configuring and customizing font access via media-libs/fontconfig	55
foomaticdb	Adds support for the foomatic printing driver database	4
fortran	Adds support for fortran (formerly f77)	87
freetds	Adds support for the TDS protocol to connect to MSSQL/Sybase databases	13
freewnn	Adds support for FreeWnn kana to kanji conversion engine	11
frontbase	Adds support for the frontbase sql server	4
ftp	Adds FTP (File Transfer Protocol) support	17
gcj	Enable building with gcj (The GNU Compiler for the Javatm Programming Language)	26
gd	Adds support for media-libs/gd (to generate graphics on the fly)	44
gdbm	Adds support for sys-libs/gdbm (GNU database libraries)	96
geoip	Add geoip support for country and city lookup based on IPs	45
ggi	Adds support for media-libs/libggi (non-X video api/drivers)	23
gif	Adds GIF image support	80
gimp	Build a plugin for the GIMP	14
glut	Build an OpenGL plugin using the GLUT library	9
gmp	Adds support for dev-libs/gmp (GNU MP library)	76
gnome	Adds GNOME support	320
gnome-keyring	Enable support for storing passwords via gnome-keyring	76
gnuplot	Enable support for gnuplot (data and function plotting)	21
gnutls	Adds support for net-libs/gnutls (TLS 1.0 and SSL 3.0 support)	202
gphoto2	Adds digital camera support	63
gpm	Adds support for sys-libs/gpm (Console-based mouse driver)	87
gps	Adds support for Global Positioning System	16
graphviz	Adds support for the Graphviz library	49
gsl	Use the GNU scientific library for calculations	24
gsm	Adds support for the gsm lossy speech compression codec	72
gstreamer	Adds support for media-libs/gstreamer (Streaming media)	112
gtk	Adds support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit)	487
gtkhtml	Adds support for gnome-extra/gtkhtml	2
guile	Adds support for the guile Scheme interpreter	26
gzip	Compress files with Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77)	40
handbook	Enable handbooks generation for KDE4.	4
hardened	activate default security enhancements for toolchain (gcc, glibc, binutils)	142
hddtemp	Enable monitoring of hdd temperature (app-admin/hddtemp)	9
hdf5	Adds support for the Hierarchical Data Format v5	15
hscolour	Includes coloured haskell sources to generated documentation (dev-haskell/hscolour)	116
ibm	Add support for IBM ppc64 specific systems	30
iconv	Enable support for the iconv character set conversion library	103
icq	Enable ICQ IM protocol support	3
icu	Enable ICU (Internationalization Components for Unicode) support, using dev-libs/icu	53
idn	Enable support for Internationalized Domain Names	81
ieee1394	Enable FireWire/iLink IEEE1394 support (dv, camera, ...)	31
imagemagick	Enables support for Imagemagick (image converter)	65
imap	Adds support for IMAP (Internet Mail Application Protocol)	20
imlib	Adds support for imlib, an image loading and rendering library	24
infiniband	Enable Infiniband RDMA transport support	10
inifile	Adds dbm support for .ini files	4
iodbc	Adds support for iODBC library	24
ios	Enable support for Apple's iDevice with iOS operating system (iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc)	9
ipod	Enable support for iPod device access	25
ipv6	Adds support for IP version 6	684
iwmmxt	Adds support for optimizations for ARM iwMMXt instructions	8
jabber	Enable jabber IM protocol support	32
jack	Adds support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit	200
java	Adds support for Java	315
java6	Use Java 1.6 to build package with || ( reduced deps, 1.6 features, source/target 1.6 )	4
javascript	Enables javascript support	22
jbig	enables jbig-kit support for tiff, Hylafax, ImageMagick, etc	15
jingle	Enables voice calls for jabber	14
joystick	Add support for joysticks in all packages	32
jpeg	Adds JPEG image support	254
jpeg2k	Support for JPEG 2000, a wavelet-based image compression format	69
kde	Adds support for kde-base/kde (K Desktop Enviroment)	180
kdeprefix	Makes a KDE prefixed install into /usr/kde/$ if enabled or into /usr (FHS compatible) otherwise	289
kerberos	Adds kerberos support	265
kolab	Adds support for the Kolab groupware server	6
kontact	Enable support for the KDE personal information manager (kde-base/kdepim*)	1
ladspa	Enables the ability to support ladspa plugins	32
lame	Prefer using LAME libraries for MP3 encoding support	30
lapack	Adds support for the virtual/lapack numerical library	21
lash	Adds LASH Audio Session Handler support	22
latex	Adds support for LaTeX (typesetting package)	72
lcms	Adds lcms support (color management engine)	83
ldap	Adds LDAP support (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)	395
libcaca	Add support for colored ASCII-art graphics	24
libedit	Use the libedit library (replacement for readline)	35
libffi	Enable support for Foreign Function Interface library	34
libnotify	Enable desktop notification support	174
libsamplerate	Build with support for converting sample rates using libsamplerate	57
libwww	Adds libwww support (General purpose WEB API)	15
lirc	Adds support for lirc (Linux's Infra-Red Remote Control)	61
livecd	!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during livecd building	24
lm_sensors	Adds linux lm_sensors (hardware sensors) support	18
lua	Enable Lua scripting support	102
lzma	Support for LZMA (de)compression algorithm	44
lzo	Enables support for lzo compression	37
m17n-lib	Enable m17n-lib support	21
mad	Adds support for mad (high-quality mp3 decoder library and cli frontend)	49
maildir	Adds support for maildir (~/.maildir) style mail spools	14
matroska	Adds support for the matroska container format (extensions .mkv, .mka and .mks)	12
matrox	Adds Matrox MGA support to mplayer	2
mbox	Adds support for mbox (/var/spool/mail) style mail spools	31
memlimit	Adds memory usage limiting in supporting programs	1
mhash	Adds support for the mhash library	9
migemo	Enables migemo support for Japanese	7
mikmod	Adds libmikmod support to allow playing of SoundTracker-style music files	16
milter	Adds sendmail mail filter (milter) support	11
mime	Adds MIME support	3
minimal	Install a very minimal build (disables, for example, plugins, fonts, most drivers, non-critical features)	315
mmap	Adds mmap (memory map) support	8
mms	Support for Microsoft Media Server (MMS) streams	30
mmx	Adds support for optimizations for Pentium MMX and Athlon class processors	135
mng	Adds support for libmng (MNG images)	40
modplug	Adds libmodplug support	31
modules	Build the kernel modules	22
mono	Build Mono bindings to support dotnet type stuff	41
motif	Adds support for the Motif toolkit	53
mozilla	Adds support for the Mozilla web-browser	5
mp3	Add support for reading mp3 files	159
mp4	Support for MP4 container format	24
mpeg	Adds libmpeg3 support to various packages	17
mpi	Adds MPI (Message Passing Interface) layer to the apps that support it	91
mplayer	Enable mplayer support for playback or encoding	15
msn	Enable MSN Messenger IM protocol support	12
msql	Adds support for the MSQL database server	1
mssql	Adds support for Microsoft SQL Server database	21
mtp	Enable support for Media Transfer Protocol	26
mule	Adds multi-language support to XEmacs	6
multilib	On 64bit systems, if you want to be able to compile 32bit and 64bit binaries	74
musepack	Enable support for the musepack audio codec	32
musicbrainz	Lookup audio metadata using MusicBrainz community service (musicbrainz.org)	14
mysql	Adds mySQL Database support	485
mysqli	Adds support for the improved mySQL libraries	12
nas	Adds support for network audio sound	90
ncurses	Adds ncurses support (console display library)	235
neon	Enable optimization support for ARM NEON processors	20
netboot	Enables network booting	12
netcdf	Enable NetCDF data format support	10
networkmanager	Enable net-misc/networkmanager support	54
neXt	Enable neXt toolkit	16
nis	Support for NIS/YP services	72
nls	Adds Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)	1629
nntp	Add support for newsgroups (Network News Transfer Protocol)	14
nocd	Install all files required to run the application without a CD mounted	4
nocxx	Old flag -- USE=cxx from now on	28
nptl	Enable support for Native POSIX Threads Library, the new threading module (requires linux-2.6 or better usually)	64
nsplugin	Build plugin for browsers supporting the Netscape plugin architecture (that is almost any modern browser)	64
ocaml	Adds support/bindings for the Ocaml language	19
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	12
oci8-instant-client	Use dev-db/oracle-instantclient-basic as Oracle provider instead of requiring a full Oracle server install	9
odbc	Adds ODBC Support (Open DataBase Connectivity)	137
offensive	Enables potentially offensive items in packages	22
ofx	Enable support for importing (and exporting) OFX (Open Financial eXchange) data files	14
ogg	Adds support for the Ogg container format (commonly used by Vorbis, Theora and flac)	57
old-linux	Add support for linux-2.4 and older	7
openal	Adds support for the Open Audio Library	77
openexr	Support for the OpenEXR graphics file format	38
opengl	Adds support for OpenGL (3D graphics)	401
openmp	Build support for the OpenMP (support parallel computing), requires >=sys-devel/gcc-4.2 built with USE="openmp"	108
oracle	Enable Oracle Database support	33
osc	Enables support for Open Sound Control	9
oscar	Enable Oscar (AIM/ICQ) IM protocol support	4
oss	Adds support for OSS (Open Sound System)	198
pam	Adds support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) - DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip	334
pch	Enable precompiled header support for faster compilation at the expense of disk space and memory (>=sys-devel/gcc-3.4 only)	127
pcmcia	Adds support for PCMCIA slots/devices found on laptop computers	10
pcntl	Adds support for process creation functions	4
pcre	Adds support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions	108
pda	Adds support for portable devices	9
pdf	Adds general support for PDF (Portable Document Format), this replaces the pdflib and cpdflib flags	61
perl	Adds optional support/bindings for the Perl language	266
php	Include support for the PHP language	39
plasma	Build optional plasma widgets that require kde-base/libplasma	12
plotutils	Add support for plotutils (library for 2-D vector graphics)	9
png	Adds support for libpng (PNG images)	278
policykit	Enable PolicyKit authentication support	46
portaudio	Adds support for the crossplatform portaudio audio API	47
posix	Adds support for POSIX-compatible functions	1
postgres	Adds support for the postgresql database	455
ppds	Adds support for automatically generated ppd (printing driver) files	2
prefix	Defines if a Gentoo Prefix offset installation is used	2
prelude	Adds support/bindings for the Prelude Intrusion Detection System	16
profile	Adds support for software performance analysis (will likely vary from ebuild to ebuild)	361
pulseaudio	Adds support for PulseAudio sound server	194
python	Adds optional support/bindings for the Python language	548
qdbm	Adds support for the qdbm (Quick Database Manager) library	10
qmail-spp	Adds support for qmail SMTP plugins	5
qt4	Adds support for the Qt GUI/Application Toolkit version 4.x	178
quicktime	Adds support for OpenQuickTime	10
radius	Adds support for RADIUS authentication	24
raw	Add support for raw image formats	18
rdesktop	Adds support for the remote desktop protocol, usually used to connect to Windows servers	10
readline	Enables support for libreadline, a GNU line-editing library that almost everyone wants	236
recode	Enables support for the GNU recode library	4
rss	Enables support for RSS feeds	21
ruby	Adds support/bindings for the Ruby language	104
samba	Adds support for SAMBA (Windows File and Printer sharing)	125
sasl	Adds support for the Simple Authentication and Security Layer	146
savedconfig	Use this to restore your config from /etc/portage/savedconfig $/$. Make sure your USE flags allow for appropriate dependencies	50
scanner	Adds support for scanner hardware (e.g. build the sane frontend in kdegraphics)	73
sdl	Adds support for Simple Direct Layer (media library)	152
seamonkey	Adds support for the Seamonkey web-browser	1
selinux	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur	459
semantic-desktop	Cross-KDE support for semantic search and information retrieval	61
session	Adds persistent session support	21
sharedmem	Adds support for shared memory use	4
shorten	Adds support for the shorten audio compressor	1
simplexml	support for SimpleXML	0
skey	Enable S/Key (Single use password) authentication support	18
slang	Adds support for the slang text display library (it's like ncurses, but different)	32
slp	Adds Service Locator Protocol support	29
smartcard	Enables smartcard support	16
smp	Enable support for multiprocessors or multicore systems	26
sndfile	Adds support for libsndfile	55
snmp	Adds support for the Simple Network Management Protocol if available	100
soap	Adds support for SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)	10
sockets	Adds support for tcp/ip sockets	8
socks5	Adds support for the socks5 proxy	32
sound	Enable sound support	24
source	Zip the sources and install them	971
sox	Adds support for Sound eXchange (SoX)	12
speex	Adds support for the speex audio codec (used for speech)	55
spell	Adds dictionary support	157
sqlite	Adds support for sqlite - embedded sql database	235
sqlite3	Adds support for sqlite3 - embedded sql database	34
sse	fast floating point optimization for PentiumIII+ class chips	121
sse2	faster floating point optimization for SSE2 capable chips	110
ssl	Adds support for Secure Socket Layer connections	955
startup-notification	Enable application startup event feedback mechanism	61
static	!!do not set this during bootstrap!! Causes binaries to be statically linked instead of dynamically	411
static-libs	Build static libraries	1278
subversion	Enable subversion (version control system) support	53
suid	Enable setuid root program, with potential security risks	32
svg	Adds support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)	99
svga	Adds support for SVGAlib (graphics library)	43
sybase	Adds support for the Sybase SQL Database Server	5
sybase-ct	Adds support for Sybase-CT	4
symlink	Force kernel ebuilds to automatically update the /usr/src/linux symlink	146
syslog	Enables support for syslog	49
sysvipc	Support for System V-compatible inter-process communication	4
szip	Use the szip compression library	7
taglib	Enable tagging support with taglib	24
tcl	Adds support the Tcl language	130
tcmalloc	Use the dev-util/google-perftools libraries to replace the malloc() implementation with a possibly faster one	17
tcpd	Adds support for TCP wrappers	190
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	4205
theora	Adds support for the Theora Video Compression Codec	45
threads	Adds threads support for various packages. Usually pthreads	306
tidy	Adds support for HTML Tidy	11
tiff	Adds support for the TIFF image format	131
timidity	Build with Timidity++ (MIDI sequencer) support	12
tk	Adds support for Tk GUI toolkit	162
tokenizer	Adds support for the PHP file parser	0
truetype	Adds support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fonts	144
uclibc	Enable uclibc specific patches and build or link uclibc	7
udev	Enable sys-fs/udev integration (device discovery, power and storage device support, etc)	49
unicode	Adds support for Unicode	212
usb	Adds USB support to applications that have optional USB support (e.g. cups)	104
v4l	Enable support for video4linux (using linux-headers or userspace libv4l libraries)	111
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	146
vcd	Video CD support	15
vhosts	Adds support for installing web-based applications into a virtual-hosting environment	247
videos	Install optional video files (used in some games)	9
vim-syntax	Pulls in related vim syntax scripts	164
vnc	Enable VNC (remote desktop viewer) support	19
vorbis	Adds support for the OggVorbis audio codec	169
wavpack	Add support for wavpack audio compression tools	47
wddx	Adds support for Web Distributed Data eXchange	4
wifi	Enable wireless network functions	42
win32codecs	use win32codecs package for dll avi decoding support (wmv and what not)	23
wmf	Adds support for the Windows Metafile vector image format	25
wxwidgets	Adds support for wxWidgets/wxGTK GUI toolkit	53
X	Adds support for X11	869
x264	Enable h264 encoding using x264	30
xattr	Adds support for extended attributes (filesystem-stored metadata)	70
Xaw3d	Adds support for the 3d athena widget set	30
xcb	Support the X C-language Binding, a replacement for Xlib	10
xcomposite	Enable support for the Xorg composite extension	55
xemacs	Add support for XEmacs	22
xface	Adds xface support used to allow a small image of xface format to be included in an email via the header 'X-Face'	17
xft	Build with support for XFT font renderer (x11-libs/libXft)	35
xine	Add support for the XINE movie libraries	23
xinerama	Add support for the xinerama X11 extension, which is mandatory if you work in multiple monitors setup	194
xinetd	Add support for the xinetd super-server	68
xml	Add support for XML files	174
xmlrpc	Support for xml-rpc library	21
xmp	Enable support for Extensible Metadata Platform (Adobe XMP)	20
xmpp	Enable support for Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) formerly known as Jabber	3
xosd	Sends display using the X On Screen Display library	15
xpm	Adds support for XPM graphics format	27
xscreensaver	Adds support for XScreenSaver extension	17
xsl	Check/Support flag for XSL library (version 1)	4
xulrunner	Build native browser integration against xulrunner instead of firefox or seamonkey	5
xv	Adds in optional support for the Xvideo extension (an X API for video playback)	27
xvid	Adds support for xvid.org's open-source mpeg-4 codec	24
yahoo	Enable Yahoo Messenger IM protocol support	5
yaz	Adds in optional support for the Z39.50 Protocol for Information Retrieval (YAZ)	2
zeroconf	Support for DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD)	41
zlib	Adds support for zlib (de)compression	317
zsh-completion	Enable zsh completion support	37

Local USE Flags