Knowledge Base:Overriding environment variables per package

Synopsis

The default environment variables during package builds are declared in /etc/portage/make.conf, but sometimes it is desirable to override a particular variable (like CFLAGS or PORTAGE_TMPDIR) for a single package.

Environment

This article is applicable to all Gentoo Linux installations.

Analysis

Portage supports per-package environment settings through /etc/portage/package.env and the /etc/portage/env subdirectories.

• Inside the /etc/portage/env directory create files that have the same syntax as make.conf and give it a sensible name. The filename will be used as the key to override settings.
• Inside the /etc/portage/package.env file define which of these files will be used on a per-package basis

Resolution

First, create the /etc/portage/env directory structure. This one will host the files that contain the variable declarations to use:

root #mkdir -p /etc/portage/env

Next, create the file(s) needed to override the settings. For instance, presume two specific overrides are needed: one is for a package where a slight tweak in the CFLAGS and FEATURES variables results in debug symbols to be built and the other is to update the PORTAGE_TMPDIR value for a package that has a huge build storage requirement:

root #echo 'CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -ggdb"' > /etc/portage/env/debug-cflags

root #echo 'FEATURES="nostrip"' >> /etc/portage/env/debug-cflags

root #echo 'PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/home/build/tmp"' > /etc/portage/env/large-tmpdir

Finally, create or edit /etc/portage/package.env and point towards these override files for the specific packages:

FILE /etc/portage/package.envOverriding environment variables per package

media-video/mplayer debug-cflags
app-office/libreoffice large-tmpdir

See also

• /etc/portage/package.env