X
a
- a52
- Enable support for decoding ATSC A/52 streams used in DVD
- aac
- Enable support for MPEG-4 AAC Audio
- aalib
- Add support for media-libs/aalib (ASCII-Graphics Library)
- accessibility
- Add support for accessibility (eg 'at-spi' library)
- acl
- Add support for Access Control Lists
- acpi
- Add support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
- adns
- Add support for asynchronous DNS resolution
- afs
- Add OpenAFS support (distributed file system)
- alsa
- Add support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
- ao
- Use libao audio output library for sound playback
- apache2
- Add Apache2 support
- apparmor
- Enable support for the AppArmor application security system
- appindicator
- Build in support for notifications using the libindicate or libappindicator plugin
- aqua
- Include support for the Mac OS X Aqua (Carbon/Cocoa) GUI
- asm
- Enable using assembly for optimization
- atm
- Enable Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol support
- audiofile
- Add support for libaudiofile where applicable
- audit
- Enable support for Linux audit subsystem using sys-process/audit
- avif
- Add AV1 Image Format (AVIF) support
b
- bash-completion
- Enable bash-completion support
- berkdb
- Add support for sys-libs/db (Berkeley DB for MySQL)
- bidi
- Enable bidirectional language support
- big-endian
- Big-endian toolchain support
- bindist
- Flag to enable or disable options for prebuilt (GRP) packages (eg. due to licensing issues)
- blas
- Add support for the virtual/blas numerical library
- bluetooth
- Enable Bluetooth Support
- branding
- Enable Gentoo specific branding
- brotli
- Enable Brotli compression support
- build
- !!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used for creating build images and the first half of bootstrapping [make stage1]
- bzip2
- Enable bzip2 compression support
c
- cairo
- Enable support for the cairo graphics library
- calendar
- Add support for calendars (not using mcal!)
- caps
- Use Linux capabilities library to control privilege
- cdb
- Add support for the CDB database engine from the author of qmail
- cdda
- Add Compact Disk Digital Audio (Standard Audio CD) support
- cddb
- Access cddb servers to retrieve and submit information about compact disks
- cdinstall
- Copy files from the CD rather than asking the user to copy them, mostly used with games
- cdr
- Add support for CD writer hardware
- cgi
- Add CGI script support
- cjk
- Add support for Multi-byte character languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
- clamav
- Add support for Clam AntiVirus software (usually with a plugin)
- colord
- Support color management using x11-misc/colord
- connman
- Add support for net-misc/connman
- coreaudio
- Build the CoreAudio driver on Mac OS X systems
- cracklib
- Support for cracklib strong password checking
- crypt
- Add support for encryption -- using mcrypt or gpg where applicable
- css
- Enable reading of encrypted DVDs
- cuda
- Enable NVIDIA CUDA support (computation on GPU)
- cups
- Add support for CUPS (Common Unix Printing System)
- curl
- Add support for client-side URL transfer library
- custom-cflags
- Build with user-specified CFLAGS (unsupported)
- cvs
- Enable CVS (Concurrent Versions System) integration
- cxx
- Build support for C++ (bindings, extra libraries, code generation, ...)
d
- dbi
- Enable dev-db/libdbi (database-independent abstraction layer) support
- dbm
- Add support for generic DBM databases
- dbus
- Enable dbus support for anything that needs it (gpsd, gnomemeeting, etc)
- debug
- Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
- dedicated
- Add support for dedicated game servers (some packages do not provide clients and servers at the same time)
- dga
- Add DGA (Direct Graphic Access) support for X
- dist-kernel
- Enable subslot rebuilds on Distribution Kernel upgrades
- djvu
- Support DjVu, a PDF-like document format esp. suited for scanned documents
- doc
- Add extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globally
- dri
- Enable direct rendering: used for accelerated 3D and some 2D, like DMA
- dts
- Enable DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder support
- dv
- Enable support for a codec used by many camcorders
- dvb
- Add support for DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)
- dvd
- Add support for DVDs
- dvdr
- Add support for DVD writer hardware (e.g. in xcdroast)
e
- eds
- Enable support for Evolution-Data-Server (EDS)
- egl
- Enable EGL (Embedded-System Graphics Library, interfacing between windowing system and OpenGL/GLES) support
- elogind
- Enable session tracking via sys-auth/elogind
- emacs
- Add support for GNU Emacs
- emboss
- Add support for the European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite
- encode
- Add support for encoding of audio or video files
- examples
- Install examples, usually source code
- exif
- Add support for reading EXIF headers from JPEG and TIFF images
- expat
- Enable the use of dev-libs/expat for XML parsing
f
- fam
- Enable FAM (File Alteration Monitor) support
- fastcgi
- Add support for the FastCGI interface
- fbcon
- Add framebuffer support for the console, via the kernel
- ffmpeg
- Enable ffmpeg/libav-based audio/video codec support
- fftw
- Use FFTW library for computing Fourier transforms
- filecaps
- Use Linux file capabilities to control privilege rather than set*id (this is orthogonal to USE=caps which uses capabilities at runtime e.g. libcap)
- firebird
- Add support for the Firebird relational database
- flac
- Add support for FLAC: Free Lossless Audio Codec
- fltk
- Add support for the Fast Light Toolkit gui interface
- fontconfig
- Support for configuring and customizing font access via media-libs/fontconfig
- fortran
- Add support for fortran
- freetds
- Add support for the TDS protocol to connect to MSSQL/Sybase databases
- freewnn
- Add support for FreeWnn kana to kanji conversion engine
- ftp
- Add FTP (File Transfer Protocol) support
g
- gd
- Add support for media-libs/gd (to generate graphics on the fly)
- gdbm
- Add support for sys-libs/gdbm (GNU database libraries)
- geoip
- Add geoip support for country and city lookup based on IPs
- geolocation
- Enable physical position determination
- ggi
- Add support for media-libs/libggi (non-X video api/drivers)
- gif
- Add GIF image support
- gimp
- Build a plugin for the GIMP
- git
- Enable git (version control system) support
- gles2
- Enable GLES 2.0 (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) support (independently of full OpenGL, see also: gles2-only)
- gles2-only
- Use GLES 2.0 (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) or later instead of full OpenGL (see also: gles2)
- glut
- Build an OpenGL plugin using the GLUT library
- gmp
- Add support for dev-libs/gmp (GNU MP library)
- gnome
- Add GNOME support
- gnome-keyring
- Enable support for storing passwords via gnome-keyring
- gnuplot
- Enable support for gnuplot (data and function plotting)
- gnutls
- Prefer net-libs/gnutls as SSL/TLS provider (ineffective with USE=-ssl)
- gphoto2
- Add digital camera support
- gpm
- Add support for sys-libs/gpm (Console-based mouse driver)
- gps
- Add support for Global Positioning System
- graphicsmagick
- Build and link against GraphicsMagick instead of ImageMagick (requires USE=imagemagick if optional)
- graphviz
- Add support for the Graphviz library
- gsl
- Use the GNU scientific library for calculations
- gsm
- Add support for the gsm lossy speech compression codec
- gstreamer
- Add support for media-libs/gstreamer (Streaming media)
- gtk
- Add support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit)
- gtk-doc
- Build and install gtk-doc based developer documentation for dev-util/devhelp, IDE and offline use
- gui
- Enable support for a graphical user interface
- guile
- Add support for the guile Scheme interpreter
- gzip
- Compress files with Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77)
h
- handbook
- Enable handbooks generation for packages by KDE
- hardened
- Activate default security enhancements for toolchain (gcc, glibc, binutils)
- hddtemp
- Enable monitoring of hdd temperature (app-admin/hddtemp)
- hdf5
- Add support for the Hierarchical Data Format v5
- headers-only
- Install only C headers instead of whole package. Mainly used by sys-devel/crossdev for toolchain bootstrap.
- heif
- Enable support for ISO/IEC 23008-12:2017 HEIF/HEIC image format
- hscolour
- Include coloured haskell sources to generated documentation (dev-haskell/hscolour)
- http2
- Enable support for the HTTP/2 protocol
i
- ibm
- Add support for IBM ppc64 specific systems
- iconv
- Enable support for the iconv character set conversion library
- icu
- Enable ICU (Internationalization Components for Unicode) support, using dev-libs/icu
- idn
- Enable support for Internationalized Domain Names
- ieee1394
- Enable FireWire/iLink IEEE1394 support (dv, camera, ...)
- imagemagick
- Enable optional support for the ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick image converter
- imap
- Add support for IMAP (Internet Mail Application Protocol)
- imlib
- Add support for imlib, an image loading and rendering library
- infiniband
- Enable Infiniband RDMA transport support
- initramfs
- Include kernel modules in the initramfs, and re-install the kernel (only effective for distribution kernels)
- inotify
- Enable inotify filesystem monitoring support
- introspection
- Add support for GObject based introspection
- iodbc
- Add support for iODBC library
- ios
- Enable support for Apple's iDevice with iOS operating system (iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc)
- ipod
- Enable support for iPod device access
- ipv6
- Add support for IP version 6
j
- jack
- Add support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit
- java
- Add support for Java
- javascript
- Enable javascript support
- jbig
- Enable jbig-kit support for tiff, Hylafax, ImageMagick, etc
- jemalloc
- Use dev-libs/jemalloc for memory management
- jit
- Enable just-in-time compilation for improved performance. May prevent use of some PaX memory protection features in Gentoo Hardened.
- joystick
- Add support for joysticks in all packages
- jpeg
- Add JPEG image support
- jpeg2k
- Support for JPEG 2000, a wavelet-based image compression format
- jpegxl
- Add JPEG XL image support
k
l
- ladspa
- Enable the ability to support ladspa plugins
- lame
- Prefer using LAME libraries for MP3 encoding support
- lapack
- Add support for the virtual/lapack numerical library
- lash
- Add LASH Audio Session Handler support
- latex
- Add support for LaTeX (typesetting package)
- lcms
- Add lcms support (color management engine)
- ldap
- Add LDAP support (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
- libass
- SRT/SSA/ASS (SubRip / SubStation Alpha) subtitle support
- libcaca
- Add support for colored ASCII-art graphics
- libedit
- Use the libedit library (replacement for readline)
- libffi
- Enable support for Foreign Function Interface library
- libnotify
- Enable desktop notification support
- libsamplerate
- Build with support for converting sample rates using libsamplerate
- libwww
- Add libwww support (General purpose WEB API)
- lirc
- Add support for lirc (Linux's Infra-Red Remote Control)
- livecd
- !!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during livecd building
- llvm-libunwind
- Use sys-libs/llvm-libunwind instead of sys-libs/libunwind
- lm-sensors
- Add linux lm-sensors (hardware sensors) support
- lto
- Enable Link-Time Optimization (LTO) to optimize the build
- lua
- Enable Lua scripting support
- lz4
- Enable support for lz4 compression (as implemented in app-arch/lz4)
- lzip
- Enable support for lzip compression
- lzma
- Support for LZMA compression algorithm
- lzo
- Enable support for lzo compression
m
- m17n-lib
- Enable m17n-lib support
- mad
- Add support for mad (high-quality mp3 decoder library and cli frontend)
- magic
- Add support for file type detection via magic bytes (usually via libmagic from sys-apps/file)
- maildir
- Add support for maildir (~/.maildir) style mail spools
- man
- Build and install man pages
- matroska
- Add support for the matroska container format (extensions .mkv, .mka and .mks)
- mbox
- Add support for mbox (/var/spool/mail) style mail spools
- memcached
- Add support for memcached
- mhash
- Add support for the mhash library
- mikmod
- Add libmikmod support to allow playing of SoundTracker-style music files
- milter
- Add sendmail mail filter (milter) support
- minimal
- Install a very minimal build (disables, for example, plugins, fonts, most drivers, non-critical features)
- mmap
- Add mmap (memory map) support
- mms
- Support for Microsoft Media Server (MMS) streams
- mng
- Add support for libmng (MNG images)
- modplug
- Add libmodplug support for playing SoundTracker-style music files
- modules
- Build the kernel modules
- modules-compress
- Install compressed kernel modules (if kernel config enables module compression)
- modules-sign
- Cryptographically sign installed kernel modules (requires CONFIG_MODULE_SIG=y in the kernel)
- mono
- Build Mono bindings to support dotnet type stuff
- motif
- Add support for the Motif toolkit
- mp3
- Add support for reading mp3 files
- mp4
- Support for MP4 container format
- mpeg
- Add libmpeg3 support to various packages
- mpi
- Add MPI (Message Passing Interface) layer to the apps that support it
- mplayer
- Enable mplayer support for playback or encoding
- mssql
- Add support for Microsoft SQL Server database
- mtp
- Enable support for Media Transfer Protocol
- multilib
- On 64bit systems, if you want to be able to compile 32bit and 64bit binaries
- musepack
- Enable support for the musepack audio codec
- musicbrainz
- Lookup audio metadata using MusicBrainz community service (musicbrainz.org)
- mysql
- Add mySQL Database support
- mysqli
- Add support for the improved mySQL libraries
n
- nas
- Add support for network audio sound
- native-extensions
- Build native (e.g. C, Rust) extensions in addition to pure (e.g. Python) code (usually speedups)
- ncurses
- Add ncurses support (console display library)
- neXt
- Enable neXt toolkit
- netcdf
- Enable NetCDF data format support
- networkmanager
- Enable net-misc/networkmanager support
- nis
- Support for NIS/YP services
- nls
- Add Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)
- nntp
- Add support for newsgroups (Network News Transfer Protocol)
- nocd
- Install all files required to run the application without a CD mounted
- nsplugin
- Build plugin for browsers supporting the Netscape plugin architecture (that is almost any modern browser)
- nvenc
- Add support for NVIDIA Encoder/Decoder (NVENC/NVDEC) API for hardware accelerated encoding and decoding on NVIDIA cards (requires x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers)
o
- ocaml
- Add support/bindings for the Ocaml language
- ocamlopt
- Enable ocamlopt support (ocaml native code compiler) -- Produces faster programs (Warning: you have to disable/enable it at a global scale)
- oci8
- Add Oracle 8 Database Support
- oci8-instant-client
- Use dev-db/oracle-instantclient-basic as Oracle provider instead of requiring a full Oracle server install
- odbc
- Add ODBC Support (Open DataBase Connectivity)
- offensive
- Enable potentially offensive items in packages
- ofx
- Enable support for importing (and exporting) OFX (Open Financial eXchange) data files
- ogg
- Add support for the Ogg container format (commonly used by Vorbis, Theora and flac)
- openal
- Add support for the Open Audio Library
- opencl
- Enable OpenCL support (computation on GPU)
- openexr
- Support for the OpenEXR graphics file format
- opengl
- Add support for OpenGL (3D graphics)
- openmp
- Build support for the OpenMP (support parallel computing), requires >=sys-devel/gcc-4.2 built with USE="openmp"
- opentype-compat
- Convert BDF and PCF bitmap fonts to OTB wrapper format
- opus
- Enable Opus audio codec support
- oracle
- Enable Oracle Database support
- orc
- Use dev-lang/orc for just-in-time optimization of array operations
- osc
- Enable support for Open Sound Control
- oss
- Add support for OSS (Open Sound System)
- otf
- Install OpenType font versions
p
- pam
- Add support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) - DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flip
- pch
- Enable precompiled header support for faster compilation at the expense of disk space and memory
- pcmcia
- Add support for PCMCIA slots/devices found on laptop computers
- pcre
- Add support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions
- pda
- Add support for portable devices
- Add general support for PDF (Portable Document Format), this replaces the pdflib and cpdflib flags
- perl
- Add optional support/bindings for the Perl language
- php
- Include support for the PHP language
- pie
- Build programs as Position Independent Executables (a security hardening technique)
- plasma
- Build optional KDE plasma addons
- plotutils
- Add support for plotutils (library for 2-D vector graphics)
- png
- Add support for libpng (PNG images)
- policykit
- Enable PolicyKit (polkit) authentication support
- portaudio
- Add support for the crossplatform portaudio audio API
- posix
- Add support for POSIX-compatible functions
- postgres
- Add support for the postgresql database
- postscript
- Enable support for the PostScript language (often with ghostscript-gpl or libspectre)
- ppds
- Add support for automatically generated ppd (printing driver) files
- prefix
- Defines if a Gentoo Prefix offset installation is used
- profile
- Add support for software performance analysis (will likely vary from ebuild to ebuild)
- pulseaudio
- Add sound server support via media-libs/libpulse (may be PulseAudio or PipeWire)
- python
- Add optional support/bindings for the Python language
q
r
- radius
- Add support for RADIUS authentication
- raw
- Add support for raw image formats
- rdp
- Enables RDP/Remote Desktop support
- readline
- Enable support for libreadline, a GNU line-editing library that almost everyone wants
- recode
- Enable support for the GNU recode library
- rss
- Enable support for RSS feeds
- ruby
- Add support/bindings for the Ruby language
s
- samba
- Add support for SAMBA (Windows File and Printer sharing)
- sasl
- Add support for the Simple Authentication and Security Layer
- savedconfig
- Use this to restore your config from /etc/portage/savedconfig ${CATEGORY}/${PN}. Make sure your USE flags allow for appropriate dependencies
- scanner
- Add support for scanner hardware (e.g. build the sane frontend in kdegraphics)
- screencast
- Enable support for remote desktop and screen cast using PipeWire
- sctp
- Support for Stream Control Transmission Protocol
- sdl
- Add support for Simple Direct Layer (media library)
- seccomp
- Enable seccomp (secure computing mode) to perform system call filtering at runtime to increase security of programs
- secureboot
- Automatically sign efi executables using user specified key
- selinux
- !!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
- semantic-desktop
- Cross-KDE support for semantic search and information retrieval
- session
- Add persistent session support
- sid
- Enable SID (Commodore 64 audio) file support
- skey
- Enable S/Key (Single use password) authentication support
- slang
- Add support for the slang text display library (it's like ncurses, but different)
- smartcard
- Enable smartcard support
- smp
- Enable support for multiprocessors or multicore systems
- snappy
- Enable support for Snappy compression (as implemented in app-arch/snappy)
- sndfile
- Add support for libsndfile
- snmp
- Add support for the Simple Network Management Protocol if available
- soap
- Add support for SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
- sockets
- Add support for tcp/ip sockets
- socks5
- Add support for the socks5 proxy
- sound
- Enable sound support
- source
- Zip the sources and install them
- sox
- Add support for Sound eXchange (SoX)
- speech
- Enable text-to-speech support
- speex
- Add support for the speex audio codec (used for speech)
- spell
- Add dictionary support
- split-usr
- Enable behavior to support maintaining /bin, /lib*, /sbin and /usr/sbin separately from /usr/bin and /usr/lib*
- sqlite
- Add support for sqlite - embedded sql database
- ssl
- Add support for SSL/TLS connections (Secure Socket Layer / Transport Layer Security)
- startup-notification
- Enable application startup event feedback mechanism
- static
- !!do not set this during bootstrap!! Causes binaries to be statically linked instead of dynamically
- static-libs
- Build static versions of dynamic libraries as well
- strip
- Allow symbol stripping to be performed by the ebuild for special files
- subversion
- Enable subversion (version control system) support
- suid
- Enable setuid root program(s)
- svg
- Add support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
- svga
- Add support for SVGAlib (graphics library)
- symlink
- Force kernel ebuilds to automatically update the /usr/src/linux symlink
- syslog
- Enable support for syslog
- systemd
- Enable use of systemd-specific libraries and features like socket activation or session tracking
- szip
- Use the szip compression library
t
- taglib
- Enable tagging support with taglib
- tcl
- Add support the Tcl language
- tcmalloc
- Use the dev-util/google-perftools libraries to replace the malloc() implementation with a possibly faster one
- tcpd
- Add support for TCP wrappers
- telemetry
- Send anonymized usage information to upstream so they can better understand our users
- test
- Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)
- test-rust
- Enable important test dependencies that require Rust toolchain
- theora
- Add support for the Theora Video Compression Codec
- threads
- Add threads support for various packages. Usually pthreads
- tidy
- Add support for HTML Tidy
- tiff
- Add support for the TIFF image format
- timidity
- Build with Timidity++ (MIDI sequencer) support
- tk
- Add support for Tk GUI toolkit
- truetype
- Add support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fonts
- ttf
- Install TrueType font versions
u
- udev
- Enable virtual/udev integration (device discovery, power and storage device support, etc)
- udisks
- Enable storage management support (automounting, volume monitoring, etc)
- uefi
- Enable support for the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
- unicode
- Add support for Unicode
- unwind
- Add support for call stack unwinding and function name resolution
- upnp
- Enable UPnP port mapping support
- upnp-av
- Enable UPnP audio/video streaming support
- upower
- Enable power management support
- usb
- Add USB support to applications that have optional USB support (e.g. cups)
v
- v4l
- Enable support for video4linux (using linux-headers or userspace libv4l libraries)
- vaapi
- Enable Video Acceleration API for hardware decoding
- vala
- Enable bindings for dev-lang/vala
- valgrind
- Enable annotations for accuracy. May slow down runtime slightly. Safe to use even if not currently using dev-debug/valgrind
- 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
- vcd
- Video CD support
- vdpau
- Enable the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix acceleration interface
- verify-sig
- Verify upstream signatures on distfiles
- vhosts
- Add support for installing web-based applications into a virtual-hosting environment
- videos
- Install optional video files (used in some games)
- vim-syntax
- Pulls in related vim syntax scripts
- vnc
- Enable VNC (remote desktop viewer) support
- vorbis
- Add support for the OggVorbis audio codec
- vulkan
- Add support for 3D graphics and computing via the Vulkan cross-platform API
w
- wavpack
- Add support for wavpack audio compression tools
- wayland
- Enable dev-libs/wayland backend
- webkit
- Add support for the WebKit HTML rendering/layout engine
- webp
- Add support for the WebP image format
- wifi
- Enable wireless network functions
- wmf
- Add support for the Windows Metafile vector image format
- wxwidgets
- Add support for wxWidgets/wxGTK GUI toolkit
x
- x264
- Enable h264 encoding using x264
- xattr
- Add support for extended attributes (filesystem-stored metadata)
- xcb
- Support the X C-language Binding, a replacement for Xlib
- xcomposite
- Enable support for the Xorg composite extension
- xemacs
- Add support for XEmacs
- xface
- Add xface support used to allow a small image of xface format to be included in an email via the header 'X-Face'
- xft
- Build with support for XFT font renderer (x11-libs/libXft)
- xine
- Add support for the XINE movie libraries
- xinerama
- Add support for querying multi-monitor screen geometry through the Xinerama API
- xinetd
- Add support for the xinetd super-server
- xml
- Add support for XML files
- xmlrpc
- Support for xml-rpc library
- xmp
- Enable support for Extensible Metadata Platform (Adobe XMP)
- xmpp
- Enable support for Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) formerly known as Jabber
- xosd
- Sends display using the X On Screen Display library
- xpm
- Add support for XPM graphics format
- xscreensaver
- Add support for XScreenSaver extension
- xv
- Add in optional support for the Xvideo extension (an X API for video playback)
- xvid
- Add support for xvid.org's open-source mpeg-4 codec
z
- zeroconf
- Support for DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD)
- zip
- Enable support for ZIP archives
- zlib
- Add support for zlib compression
- zsh-completion
- Enable zsh completion support
- zstd
- Enable support for ZSTD compression