PackagesGlobal USE flags
Enable support for decoding ATSC A/52 streams used in DVDEnable support for MPEG-4 AAC AudioAdd support for media-libs/aalib (ASCII-Graphics Library)Add support for accessibility (eg 'at-spi' library)Add support for Access Control ListsAdd support for Advanced Configuration and Power InterfaceAdd support for asynchronous DNS resolutionAdd OpenAFS support (distributed file system)Add support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)Use libao audio output library for sound playbackAdd Apache2 supportEnable support for the AppArmor application security systemBuild in support for notifications using the libindicate or libappindicator pluginInclude support for the Mac OS X Aqua (Carbon/Cocoa) GUIEnable using assembly for optimizationEnable Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol supportAdd support for libaudiofile where applicableEnable support for Linux audit subsystem using sys-process/auditAdd AV1 Image Format (AVIF) supportEnable bash-completion supportAdd support for sys-libs/db (Berkeley DB)Enable bidirectional language supportBig-endian toolchain supportFlag to enable or disable options for prebuilt (GRP) packages (eg. due to licensing issues)Add support for the virtual/blas numerical libraryEnable Bluetooth SupportEnable Gentoo specific brandingEnable Brotli compression support!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used for creating build images and the first half of bootstrapping [make stage1]Enable bzip2 compression supportEnable support for the cairo graphics libraryAdd support for calendars (not using mcal!)Use Linux capabilities library to control privilegeAdd support for the CDB database engine from the author of qmailAdd Compact Disk Digital Audio (Standard Audio CD) supportAccess cddb servers to retrieve and submit information about compact disksCopy files from the CD rather than asking the user to copy them, mostly used with gamesAdd support for CD writer hardwareAdd CGI script supportAdd support for Multi-byte character languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)Add support for Clam AntiVirus software (usually with a plugin)Support color management using x11-misc/colordAdd support for net-misc/connmanBuild the CoreAudio driver on Mac OS X systemsSupport for cracklib strong password checkingAdd support for encryption -- using mcrypt or gpg where applicableEnable reading of encrypted DVDsEnable NVIDIA CUDA support (computation on GPU)Add support for CUPS (Common Unix Printing System)Add support for client-side URL transfer libraryBuild with user-specified CFLAGS (unsupported)Enable CVS (Concurrent Versions System) integrationBuild support for C++ (bindings, extra libraries, code generation, ...)Enable dev-db/libdbi (database-independent abstraction layer) supportAdd support for generic DBM databasesEnable dbus support for anything that needs it (gpsd, gnomemeeting, etc)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/BacktracesAdd support for dedicated game servers (some packages do not provide clients and servers at the same time)Add DGA (Direct Graphic Access) support for XEnable subslot rebuilds on Distribution Kernel upgradesSupport DjVu, a PDF-like document format esp. suited for scanned documentsAdd extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globallyEnable direct rendering: used for accelerated 3D and some 2D, like DMAEnable DTS Coherent Acoustics decoder supportEnable support for a codec used by many camcordersAdd support for DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)Add support for DVDsAdd support for DVD writer hardware (e.g. in xcdroast)Enable support for Evolution-Data-Server (EDS)Enable EGL (Embedded-System Graphics Library, interfacing between windowing system and OpenGL/GLES) supportEnable session tracking via sys-auth/elogindAdd support for GNU EmacsAdd support for the European Molecular Biology Open Software SuiteAdd support for encoding of audio or video filesInstall examples, usually source codeAdd support for reading EXIF headers from JPEG and TIFF imagesEnable the use of dev-libs/expat for XML parsingEnable FAM (File Alteration Monitor) supportAdd support for the FastCGI interfaceAdd framebuffer support for the console, via the kernelEnable ffmpeg/libav-based audio/video codec supportUse FFTW library for computing Fourier transformsUse Linux file capabilities to control privilege rather than set*id (this is orthogonal to USE=caps which uses capabilities at runtime e.g. libcap)Add support for the Firebird relational databaseAdd support for FLAC: Free Lossless Audio CodecAdd support for the Fast Light Toolkit gui interfaceSupport for configuring and customizing font access via media-libs/fontconfigAdd support for fortranAdd support for the TDS protocol to connect to MSSQL/Sybase databasesAdd FTP (File Transfer Protocol) supportAdd support for media-libs/gd (to generate graphics on the fly)Add support for sys-libs/gdbm (GNU database libraries)Add geoip support for country and city lookup based on IPsEnable physical position determinationAdd support for media-libs/libggi (non-X video api/drivers)Add GIF image supportBuild a plugin for the GIMPEnable git (version control system) supportEnable GLES 2.0 (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) support (independently of full OpenGL, see also: gles2-only)Use GLES 2.0 (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) or later instead of full OpenGL (see also: gles2)Build an OpenGL plugin using the GLUT libraryAdd support for dev-libs/gmp (GNU MP library)Add GNOME supportEnable support for storing passwords via gnome-keyringEnable support for gnuplot (data and function plotting)Prefer net-libs/gnutls as SSL/TLS provider (ineffective with USE=-ssl)Add digital camera supportAdd support for sys-libs/gpm (Console-based mouse driver)Add support for Global Positioning SystemBuild and link against GraphicsMagick instead of ImageMagick (requires USE=imagemagick if optional)Add support for the Graphviz libraryUse the GNU scientific library for calculationsAdd support for the gsm lossy speech compression codecAdd support for media-libs/gstreamer (Streaming media)Add support for x11-libs/gtk+ (The GIMP Toolkit)Build and install gtk-doc based developer documentation for dev-util/devhelp, IDE and offline useEnable support for a graphical user interfaceAdd support for the guile Scheme interpreterCompress files with Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77)Enable handbooks generation for packages by KDEActivate default security enhancements for toolchain (gcc, glibc, binutils)Enable monitoring of hdd temperature (app-admin/hddtemp)Add support for the Hierarchical Data Format v5Install only C headers instead of whole package. Mainly used by sys-devel/crossdev for toolchain bootstrap.Enable support for ISO/IEC 23008-12:2017 HEIF/HEIC image formatInclude coloured haskell sources to generated documentation (dev-haskell/hscolour)Enable support for the HTTP/2 protocolAdd support for IBM ppc64 specific systemsEnable support for the iconv character set conversion libraryEnable ICU (Internationalization Components for Unicode) support, using dev-libs/icuEnable support for Internationalized Domain NamesEnable FireWire/iLink IEEE1394 support (dv, camera, ...)Enable optional support for the ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick image converterAdd support for IMAP (Internet Mail Application Protocol)Add support for imlib, an image loading and rendering libraryEnable Infiniband RDMA transport supportInclude kernel modules in the initramfs, and re-install the kernel (only effective for distribution kernels)Enable inotify filesystem monitoring supportAdd support for GObject based introspectionAdd support for iODBC libraryEnable support for Apple's iDevice with iOS operating system (iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc)Enable the use of io_uring for efficient asynchronous IO and system requestsEnable support for iPod device accessAdd support for IP version 6Add support for the JACK Audio Connection KitAdd support for JavaEnable javascript supportEnable jbig-kit support for tiff, Hylafax, ImageMagick, etcUse dev-libs/jemalloc for memory managementEnable just-in-time compilation for improved performance. May prevent use of some PaX memory protection features in Gentoo Hardened.Add support for joysticks in all packagesAdd JPEG image supportSupport for JPEG 2000, a wavelet-based image compression formatAdd JPEG XL image supportAdd support for software made by KDE, a free software communityAdd kerberos supportEnable support for freedesktop.org Secret Service API password storeEnable the ability to support ladspa pluginsAdd support for MP3 encoding using LAMEAdd support for the virtual/lapack numerical libraryAdd LASH Audio Session Handler supportAdd support for LaTeX (typesetting package)Add lcms support (color management engine)Add LDAP support (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)Add LERC suppport (Limited Error Raster Compression)SRT/SSA/ASS (SubRip / SubStation Alpha) subtitle supportAdd support for colored ASCII-art graphicsUse the libedit library (replacement for readline)Enable support for Foreign Function Interface libraryEnable desktop notification supportBuild with support for converting sample rates using libsamplerateAdd libwww support (General purpose WEB API)Add support for lirc (Linux's Infra-Red Remote Control)!!internal use only!! DO NOT SET THIS FLAG YOURSELF!, used during livecd buildingUse llvm-runtimes/libunwind instead of sys-libs/libunwindAdd linux lm-sensors (hardware sensors) supportEnable Link-Time Optimization (LTO) to optimize the buildEnable Lua scripting supportEnable support for lz4 compression (as implemented in app-arch/lz4)Enable support for lzip compressionSupport for LZMA compression algorithmEnable support for lzo compressionEnable m17n-lib supportAdd support for mad (high-quality mp3 decoder library and cli frontend)Add support for file type detection via magic bytes (usually via libmagic from sys-apps/file)Add support for maildir (~/.maildir) style mail spoolsBuild and install man pagesAdd support for the matroska container format (extensions .mkv, .mka and .mks)Add support for mbox (/var/spool/mail) style mail spoolsAdd support for memcachedAdd support for the mhash libraryAdd libmikmod support to allow playing of SoundTracker-style music filesAdd sendmail mail filter (milter) supportInstall a very minimal build (disables, for example, plugins, fonts, most drivers, non-critical features)Add mmap (memory map) supportSupport for Microsoft Media Server (MMS) streamsAdd support for libmng (MNG images)Add libmodplug support for playing SoundTracker-style music filesBuild the kernel modulesInstall compressed kernel modules (if kernel config enables module compression)Cryptographically sign installed kernel modules (requires CONFIG_MODULE_SIG=y in the kernel)Build Mono bindings to support dotnet type stuffAdd support for the Motif toolkitAdd support for reading mp3 filesSupport for MP4 container formatAdd libmpeg3 support to various packagesAdd MPI (Message Passing Interface) layer to the apps that support itEnable mplayer support for playback or encodingAdd support for Microsoft SQL Server databaseEnable support for Media Transfer ProtocolOn 64bit systems, if you want to be able to compile 32bit and 64bit binariesEnable support for the musepack audio codecLookup audio metadata using MusicBrainz community service (musicbrainz.org)Add mySQL Database supportAdd support for the improved mySQL librariesAdd support for network audio soundBuild native (e.g. C, Rust) extensions in addition to pure (e.g. Python) code (usually speedups)Add ncurses support (console display library)Enable NetCDF data format supportEnable net-misc/networkmanager supportEnable neXt toolkitSupport for NIS/YP servicesAdd Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)Add support for newsgroups (Network News Transfer Protocol)Install all files required to run the application without a CD mountedBuild plugin for browsers supporting the Netscape plugin architecture (that is almost any modern browser)Add support for NVIDIA Encoder/Decoder (NVENC/NVDEC) API for hardware accelerated encoding and decoding on NVIDIA cards (requires x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers)Add support/bindings for the Ocaml languageEnable ocamlopt support (ocaml native code compiler) -- Produces faster programs (Warning: you have to disable/enable it at a global scale)Add Oracle 8 Database SupportUse dev-db/oracle-instantclient-basic as Oracle provider instead of requiring a full Oracle server installAdd ODBC Support (Open DataBase Connectivity)Enable potentially offensive items in packagesEnable support for importing (and exporting) OFX (Open Financial eXchange) data filesAdd support for the Ogg container format (commonly used by Vorbis, Theora and flac)Add support for the Open Audio LibraryEnable OpenCL support (computation on GPU)Support for the OpenEXR graphics file formatAdd support for OpenGL (3D graphics)Build support for the OpenMP (support parallel computing), requires >=sys-devel/gcc-4.2 built with USE="openmp"Convert BDF and PCF bitmap fonts to OTB wrapper formatEnable Opus audio codec supportEnable Oracle Database supportUse dev-lang/orc for just-in-time optimization of array operationsEnable support for Open Sound ControlAdd support for OSS (Open Sound System)Install OpenType font versionsAdd support for PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) - DANGEROUS to arbitrarily flipEnable precompiled header support for faster compilation at the expense of disk space and memoryAdd support for PCMCIA slots/devices found on laptop computersAdd support for Perl Compatible Regular ExpressionsAdd support for portable devicesAdd general support for PDF (Portable Document Format), this replaces the pdflib and cpdflib flagsAdd optional support/bindings for the Perl languageInclude support for the PHP languageBuild programs as Position Independent Executables (a security hardening technique)Build optional KDE plasma addonsAdd support for plotutils (library for 2-D vector graphics)Add support for libpng (PNG images)Enable PolicyKit (polkit) authentication supportAdd support for the crossplatform portaudio audio APIAdd support for POSIX-compatible functionsAdd support for the postgresql databaseEnable support for the PostScript language (often with ghostscript-gpl or libspectre)Add support for automatically generated ppd (printing driver) filesDefines if a Gentoo Prefix offset installation is usedAdd support for software performance analysis (will likely vary from ebuild to ebuild)Add sound server support via media-libs/libpulse (may be PulseAudio or PipeWire)Add optional support/bindings for the Python languageAdd support for the qdbm (Quick Database Manager) libraryAdd support for qmail SMTP pluginsAdd support for the Qt 5 application and UI frameworkAdd support for the Qt 6 application and UI frameworkAdd support for OpenQuickTimeAdd support for RADIUS authenticationAdd support for raw image formatsEnables RDP/Remote Desktop supportEnable support for libreadline, a GNU line-editing library that almost everyone wantsEnable support for the GNU recode libraryEnable support for RSS feedsAdd support/bindings for the Ruby languageAdd support for SAMBA (Windows File and Printer sharing)Add support for the Simple Authentication and Security LayerUse this to restore your config from /etc/portage/savedconfig ${CATEGORY}/${PN}. Make sure your USE flags allow for appropriate dependenciesAdd support for scanner hardware (e.g. build the sane frontend in kdegraphics)Enable support for remote desktop and screen cast using PipeWireSupport for Stream Control Transmission ProtocolAdd support for Simple Direct Layer (media library)Enable seccomp (secure computing mode) to perform system call filtering at runtime to increase security of programsAutomatically sign efi executables using user specified key!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occurCross-KDE support for semantic search and information retrievalAdd persistent session supportEnable SID (Commodore 64 audio) file supportEnable S/Key (Single use password) authentication supportAdd support for the slang text display library (it's like ncurses, but different)Enable smartcard supportEnable support for multiprocessors or multicore systemsEnable support for Snappy compression (as implemented in app-arch/snappy)Add support for libsndfileAdd support for the Simple Network Management Protocol if availableAdd support for SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)Add support for tcp/ip socketsAdd support for the socks5 proxyEnable sound supportZip the sources and install themAdd support for Sound eXchange (SoX)Enable text-to-speech supportAdd support for the speex audio codec (used for speech)Add dictionary supportEnable behavior to support maintaining /bin, /lib*, /sbin and /usr/sbin separately from /usr/bin and /usr/lib*Add support for sqlite - embedded sql databaseAdd support for SSL/TLS connections (Secure Socket Layer / Transport Layer Security)Enable application startup event feedback mechanism!!do not set this during bootstrap!! Causes binaries to be statically linked instead of dynamicallyBuild static versions of dynamic libraries as wellAllow symbol stripping to be performed by the ebuild for special filesEnable subversion (version control system) supportEnable setuid root program(s)Add support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)Add support for SVGAlib (graphics library)Force kernel ebuilds to automatically update the /usr/src/linux symlinkEnable support for syslogEnable use of systemd-specific libraries and features like socket activation or session trackingUse the szip compression libraryEnable tagging support with taglibAdd support the Tcl languageUse the dev-util/google-perftools libraries to replace the malloc() implementation with a possibly faster oneAdd support for TCP wrappersSend anonymized usage information to upstream so they can better understand our usersEnable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)Install testsuite for manual execution by the userEnable important test dependencies that require Rust toolchainAdd support for the Theora Video Compression CodecAdd threads support for various packages. Usually pthreadsAdd support for HTML TidyAdd support for the TIFF image formatUse 64-bit time_t type instead of the regular 32-bit type. This flag is forced on time64 profiles, and masked elsewhere. It should be only used when detection of type width is not possible (e.g. for SRC_URI)Build with Timidity++ (MIDI sequencer) supportAdd support for Tk GUI toolkitAdd support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fontsInstall TrueType font versionsEnable virtual/udev integration (device discovery, power and storage device support, etc)Enable storage management support (automounting, volume monitoring, etc)Enable support for the Unified Extensible Firmware InterfaceAdd support for UnicodeAdd support for call stack unwinding and function name resolutionEnable UPnP port mapping supportEnable UPnP audio/video streaming supportEnable power management supportAdd USB support to applications that have optional USB support (e.g. cups)Enable support for video4linux (using linux-headers or userspace libv4l libraries)Enable Video Acceleration API for hardware decodingEnable bindings for dev-lang/valaEnable annotations for accuracy. May slow down runtime slightly. Safe to use even if not currently using dev-debug/valgrindDo not add extra patches which change default behaviour; DO NOT USE THIS ON A GLOBAL SCALE as the severity of the meaning changes drasticallyVideo CD supportEnable the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix acceleration interfaceVerify upstream signatures on distfilesAdd support for installing web-based applications into a virtual-hosting environmentInstall optional video files (used in some games)Pulls in related vim syntax scriptsEnable VNC (remote desktop viewer) supportAdd support for the OggVorbis audio codecAdd support for VP8/VP9 codecs (usually via media-libs/libvpx)Add support for 3D graphics and computing via the Vulkan cross-platform APIAdd support for wavpack audio compression toolsEnable dev-libs/wayland backendAdd support for the WebKit HTML rendering/layout engineAdd support for the WebP image formatEnable wireless network functionsAdd support for the Windows Metafile vector image formatAdd support for wxWidgets/wxGTK GUI toolkitAdd support for X11Enable h264 encoding using x264Add support for extended attributes (filesystem-stored metadata)Add support for the 3d athena widget setSupport the X C-language Binding, a replacement for XlibEnable support for the Xorg composite extensionAdd support for XEmacsAdd xface support used to allow a small image of xface format to be included in an email via the header 'X-Face'Build with support for XFT font renderer (x11-libs/libXft)Add support for the XINE movie librariesAdd support for querying multi-monitor screen geometry through the Xinerama APIAdd support for the xinetd super-serverAdd support for XML filesSupport for xml-rpc libraryEnable support for Extensible Metadata Platform (Adobe XMP)Enable support for Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) formerly known as JabberSends display using the X On Screen Display libraryAdd support for XPM graphics formatAdd support for XScreenSaver extensionAdd in optional support for the Xvideo extension (an X API for video playback)Add support for xvid.org's open-source mpeg-4 codecSupport for DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD)Enable support for ZIP archivesAdd support for zlib compressionEnable zsh completion supportEnable support for ZSTD compression