MAKE.CONF(5)

NAME
make.conf - custom settings for Portage

SYNOPSIS
/etc/make.conf

DESCRIPTION
This file contains various variables that are used by Portage. Portage will check the currently-defined environment variables first for any settings. If no environment settings are found, Portage then checks /etc/make.conf. If no setting is found in /etc/make.conf, Portage checks /etc/make.globals. If no setting is found there, the profile's default setting is grabbed from /etc/make.profile/make.defaults. Please note that all user settings should be made in the environment or in /etc/make.conf, which is intended to be customized by the user.
Exceptions are incremental variables such as USE, CONFIG_PROTECT*, and ACCEPT_KEYWORDS. Incremental variables are propagated down from make.defaults to make.globals to make.conf to the environment settings. Clearing these variables requires a clear-all as in: export USE="-*"

VARIABLES

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS = [space delimited list of KEYWORDS]
    Enable testing of ebuilds that have not yet been deemed 'stable'. Users of the 'x86' architecture would set this to '~x86' while ppc users would set this to '~ppc'. This is an incremental variable. Only define a ~arch.
    Defaults to the value of $ARCH.

BUILD_PREFIX = [path]
    Defines the location of the package working directory.
    Defaults to ${PORTAGE_TMPDIR}/portage

CBUILD
    This variable is passed by the ebuild scripts to the configure as --build=${CBUILD} only if it is defined. Do not set this yourself unless you know what you are doing.

CCACHE_DIR = [path]
    Defines the location of the ccache working directory. See the ccache(1) man page for more information.
    Defaults to /var/tmp/ccache

CCACHE_SIZE = "size"
    This controls the space use limitations for ccache. The default is 2 gigabytes ('2G'). Sizes are specified with 'G', 'M', or 'K'.

CFLAGS CXXFLAGS
    Use these variables to set the desired optimization/CPU instruction settings for applications that you compile. Nearly all ebuild files will take advantage of your custom settings, resulting in a Gentoo Linux that is fully customized to your specifications. Please use sane settings as some packages will fail to compile/run if the optimizations are too extreme. For more information, see the Invoking GCC section of the gcc manual:
    http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/

CHOST
    This variable is passed by the ebuild scripts to the configure step as --host=${CHOST}. This way you can force the build-host. For more information:
    http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.1.1/gcc/Submodel-Options.html
    http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.3/gcc/Submodel-Options.html
    http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-3.2/gcc/Submodel-Options.html
    http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-2.95.3/gcc_2.html

CLEAN_DELAY = integer
    Determines how long the countdown delay will be after running `emerge clean`.
    Defaults to 5 seconds.

COLLISION_IGNORE = [space delimited list of files and/or directories]
    This variable allows the user to disable collision-protect for specific files and/or directories.

CONFIG_PROTECT = [space delimited list of files and/or directories]
    All files and/or directories that are defined here will have "config file protection" enabled for them. For more information, please see `emerge --help config`.

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK = [space delimited list of files and/or directories]
    All files and/or directories that are defined here will have "config file protection" disabled for them. For more information, please see `emerge --help config`.

CTARGET
    This variable is passed by the ebuild scripts to the configure as --target=${CTARGET} only if it is defined.

DISTDIR = [path]
    Defines the location of your local source file repository.
    Defaults to ${PORTDIR}/distfiles.

DOC_SYMLINKS_DIR
    If this variable contains a directory then symlinks to html documentation will be installed into it.

EBEEP_IGNORE
    Defines whether or not to ignore audible beeps when displaying important informational messages. This variable is unset by default.

EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS
    Options to append to the end of the emerge(1) command line on every invocation. These options will not be appended to the command line if --ignore-default-opts is specified.

EPAUSE_IGNORE
    Defines whether or not to ignore short pauses that occur when displaying important informational messages. This variable is unset by default. If it is set to any value pauses are ignored.

FEATURES = "sandbox ccache"
    Defines actions portage takes by default. These options should not be changed by anyone but developers and/or maintainers. 'sandbox' is an important part of FEATURES and should not be disabled by default. This is an incremental variable.

    assume-digests
        When commiting work to cvs with repoman(1), assume that all existing SRC_URI digests are correct. This feature also affects digest generation via ebuild(1) and emerge(1) (emerge generates digests only when the digest feature is enabled).

    buildpkg
        Binary packages will be created for all packages that are merged.

    buildsyspkg
        Build binary packages for just packages in the system set.

    ccache
        Enable portage support for the ccache package. If the ccache dir is not present in the user's environment, then portage will default to ${PORTAGE_TMPDIR}/ccache.

    confcache
        Enable confcache support; global configure caching, speeds up autotool based configure calls via the econf helper function. See ebuild(5) for more information.

    collision-protect
        A QA-feature to ensure that a package doesn't overwrite files it doesn't own. The COLLISION_IGNORE variable can be used to selectively disable this feature.

    digest
        Autogenerate digests for packages when running the emerge(1) command. If the assume-digests feature is also enabled then existing SRC_URI digests will be reused whenever they are available.

    distcc
        Enable portage support for the distcc package.

    distlocks
        Portage uses lockfiles to ensure competing instances don't clobber each other's files. This feature is enabled by default but may cause heartache on less intelligent remote filesystems like NFSv2 and some strangely configured Samba server (oplocks off, NFS re-export). A tool /usr/lib/portage/bin/clean_locks exists to help handle lock issues when a problem arises (normally due to a crash or disconnect).

    fixpackages
        Runs the script that will fix the dependencies in all binary packages. This is run whenever packages are moved around in the portage tree. Please note that this can take a lot of time.

    getbinpkg
        Force emerges to always try to fetch files from the PORTAGE_BINHOST. See make.conf(5) for more information.

    gpg Check the signatures of Manifests and make sure they are correct.

    installsources
        Install source code into /usr/src/debug/${CATEGORY}/${PF} (also see splitdebug). This feature works only if debugedit is installed.

    keeptemp
        Do not delete the ${T} directory after the merge process.

    keepwork
        Do not delete the ${WORKDIR} directory after the merge process.

    metadata-transfer
        Automatically perform a metadata transfer when `emerge --sync` is run.

    mirror
        This will cause FETCHCOMMAND to always be run even if the file already exists in DISTDIR.

    noauto
        When utilizing ebuild(1), only run the function requested.

    noclean
        Do not delete the the source and temporary files after the merge process.

    nodoc
        Do not install doc files (/usr/share/doc).

    noinfo
        Do not install info pages.

    noman
        Do not install manpages.

    nostrip
        Prevents the stripping of binaries that are merged to the live filesystem.

    notitles
        Disables xterm titlebar updates (which contains status info).

    parallel-fetch
        Fetch in the background while compiling.

    sandbox
        Enable sandbox-ing when running emerge(1) and ebuild(1).

    severe
        When checking Manifests, only accept ones that have been signed by a key which you trust.

    sfperms
        Stands for Smart Filesystem Permissions. Before merging packages to the live filesystem, automatically search for and set permissions on setuid and setgid files. Files that are setuid have the group and other read bits removed while files that are setgid have the other read bit removed. See also suidctl below.

    sign
        When commiting work to cvs with repoman(1), sign the Manifest with a GPG key. Read about the PORTAGE_GPG_KEY variable in make.conf(5).

    splitdebug
        Prior to stripping ELF etdyn and etexec files, the debugging info is stored for later use by various debuggers. This feature is disabled by nostrip. For installation of source code, see installsources.

    strict
        Have portage react strongly to conditions that have the potential to be dangerous (like missing or incorrect Manifests).

    stricter
        Have portage react strongly to conditions that may conflict with system security provisions (for example textrels, executable stack). Read about the QA_STRICT_* variables in make.conf(5).

    suidctl
        Before merging packages to the live filesystem, automatically strip setuid bits from any file that is not listed in /etc/portage/suidctl.conf.

    test
        Run package-specific tests during each merge to help make sure the package compiled properly. See test in ebuild(1) and src_test() in ebuild(5). This feature implies the "test" USE flag.

    userfetch
        When portage is run as root, drop privileges to portage:portage during the fetching of package sources.

    userpriv
        Allow portage to drop root privileges and compile packages as portage:portage without a sandbox (unless usersandbox is also used).

    usersandbox
        Enable the sandbox in the compile phase, when running without root privs (userpriv).

FETCHCOMMAND
    This variable contains the command used for fetching package sources from the internet. It must contain the full path to the executable as well as the place-holders \${DISTDIR} and \${URI}.

GENTOO_MIRRORS = [URLs]
    Insert your space-seperated list of local mirrors here. These locations are used to download files before the ones listed in the ebuild scripts. Merging 'mirrorselect' can help. Entries in this variable that have no protocol and simply start with a '/' path separator may be used to specify mounted filesystem mirrors.

http_proxy ftp_proxy = [host:port]
    These vars are used if the sources must be downloaded from the internet by wget(1). They are only required if you use a proxy server for internet access.

INSTALL_MASK = [space delimited list of file names]
    Use this variable if you want to selectively prevent certain files from being copied into your file system tree. This does not work on symlinks, but only on actual files. Useful if you wish to filter out files like HACKING.gz and TODO.gz.

MAKEOPTS
    Use this variable if you want to use parallel make. For example, if you have a dual-processor system, set this variable to "-j2" or "-j3" for enhanced build performance with many packages. Suggested settings are between CPUs+1 and 2*CPUs+1. For more information, see make(1).

NOCOLOR = ["true" | "false"]
    Defines if color should be disabled by default.
    Defaults to false.

PKGDIR = [path]
    Defines the location where created .tbz2 binary packages will be stored.
    Defaults to ${PORTDIR}/packages.

PORT_LOGDIR
    This variable defines the directory in which per-ebuild logs are kept. Logs are created only when this is set and writable.

PORTAGE_BINHOST = "ftp://login:pass@grp.mirror.site/pub/grp/i686/athlon-xp"
    This is the host from which portage will grab prebuilt-binary packages. The list is a single entry specifying the full address of the directory serving the tbz2's for your system. This is only used when running with the get binary pkg options are given to emerge. Review emerge(1) for more information. Note that it should point to the 'All' directory on the host that creates the binary packages and not to the root of the PKGDIR.

PORTAGE_COMPRESS = "bzip2"
    This variable contains the command used to compress documentation during the install phase.

PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS = "-f9"
    This variable contains flags for the PORTAGE_COMPRESS command.

PORTAGE_ELOG_CLASSES

PORTAGE_ELOG_SYSTEM

PORTAGE_ELOG_COMMAND

PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILURI

PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILFROM

PORTAGE_ELOG_MAILSUBJECT
    Please see /etc/make.conf.example for elog documentation.

PORTAGE_NICENESS = [number]
    The value of this variable will be added to the current nice level that emerge is running at. In other words, this will not set the nice level, it will increment it. For more information about nice levels and what are acceptable ranges, see nice(1).

PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS = [rsync options string]
    Additional rsync options to be used by emerge --sync.
    Defaults to no value.

PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS = [rsync options string]
    Default rsync options to be used by emerge --sync.
    Don't change this unless you know exactly what you're doing!
    Defaults to "--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude='/distfiles' --exclude='/local' --exclude='/packages'"

PORTAGE_RSYNC_RETRIES = [NUMBER]
    The number of times rsync should retry on failed connections before giving up.
    Defaults to 3.

PORTAGE_TMPDIR = [path]
    Defines the location of the temporary build directories.
    Defaults to /var/tmp.

PORTDIR = [path]
    Defines the location of your Portage tree.
    Defaults to /usr/portage.
    ***Warning***
    Storing data such as distfiles and binary packages in PORTDIR can be potentially dangerous. The default emerge configuration defaults to this behavior (which will work fine), however if you deviate from the default configuration by changing PKGDIR or DISTDIR, emerge --sync may inadvertedly delete all your distfiles/binary packages. Please make sure to set PORTAGE_EXTRA_RSYNC_OPTS properly to insure the safety of files in PORTDIR.

PORTDIR_OVERLAY = "[path] [different-path] [etc...]"
    Defines the directories in which user made ebuilds may be stored and not overwriten when `emerge --sync` is run. This is a space delimited list of directories.
    Defaults to no value.

QA_STRICT_EXECSTACK = "set"
    Set this to cause portage to ignore any QA_EXECSTACK override settings from ebuilds. See also ebuild(5).

QA_STRICT_WX_LOAD = "set"
    Set this to cause portage to ignore any QA_WX_LOAD override settings from ebuilds. See also ebuild(5).

QA_STRICT_TEXTRELS = "set"
    Set this to cause portage to ignore any QA_TEXTREL override settings from ebuilds. See also ebuild(5).

RESUMECOMMAND
    This variable contains the command used for resuming package sources that have been partially downloaded. It should be defined using the same format as FETCHCOMMAND.

ROOT = [path]
    Use ROOT to specify the target root filesystem to be used for merging packages or ebuilds. All RDEPEND and PDEPEND will be installed into ROOT while all DEPEND will be still be installed into /. Typically, you should set this setting in the environment rather than in /etc/make.conf itself. It's commonly used for creating new build images. Make sure you use an absolute path.
    Defaults to /.

RPMDIR = [path]
    Defines the location where created RPM packages will be stored.
    Defaults to ${PORTDIR}/rpm.

SYNC = [RSYNC]
    Insert your preferred rsync mirror here. This rsync server is used to sync the local portage tree when `emerge --sync` is run.
    Defaults to rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage

USE = [space delimited list of USE items]
    This variable contains options that control the build behavior of several packages. More information in ebuild(5). Possible USE values can be found in /usr/portage/profiles/use.desc.

USE_EXPAND_HIDDEN = [space delimited list of variable names]
    Names of USE_EXPAND variables that should not be shown in the verbose merge list output of the emerge(1) command.

USE_ORDER = "env:pkg:conf:defaults:pkginternal"
    Determines the precedence of layers in the incremental stacking of the USE variable. Precedence decreases from left to right such that env overrides pkg, pkg overrides conf, and so forth. ***warning***
    Do not modify this value unless you're a developer and you know what you're doing. If you change this and something breaks, we will not help you fix it.

    env USE from the current USE environment variable if it exists

    pkg Per-package USE from /etc/portage/package.use (see portage(5))

    conf
        USE from make.conf

    defaults
        USE from make.defaults and package.use in the profile (see portage(5))

    pkginternal
        USE from ebuild IUSE defaults (flags enabled via a + prefix; see ebuild(5))

REPORTING BUGS
Please report bugs via http://bugs.gentoo.org/

AUTHORS
Daniel Robbins <drobbins@gentoo.org>
Nicholas Jones <carpaski@gentoo.org>
Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
Saleem Abdulrasool <compnerd@gentoo.org>

FILES

/etc/make.conf
    Contains variables for the build-process and overwrites those in make.defaults.

/etc/make.globals
    Contains the default variables for the build-process, you should edit /etc/make.conf instead.

/usr/portage/profiles/use.desc
    Contains a list of all global USE flags.

/usr/portage/profiles/use.local.desc
    Contains a list of all local USE variables.

SEE ALSO
emerge(1), portage(5), ebuild(1), ebuild(5)

The /usr/sbin/ebuild.sh script.

The helper apps in /usr/lib/portage/bin.