Profile (Portage)

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A Portage profile specifies default values for global and per-package USE flags, specifies default values for most variables found in make.conf, and defines a set of system packages. It masks unstable package versions and USE flags. The profiles are maintained by the Gentoo developers as part of the Gentoo repository (/usr/portage/profiles), but there are ways for users to override single pieces.

An exhaustive explanation is given in the Gentoo handbook.

Structure

All profiles are cascading/stackable profiles composed by several subprofiles. Each subprofile (corresponding to a directory under /usr/portage/profiles) can contain files to set some defaults. Lower level subprofiles (e.g default/linux/amd64) also can have a file called parent, which pulls in one or more other higher level subprofiles (here: default/linux, arch/amd64 and base). Defaults defined in a lower level subprofile overwrites all conflicting defaults in higher subprofiles.

Following is an example for the stacked profile default/linux/amd64/13.0/desktop/kde showing the dependencies:

CODE Stacked profiles example

/usr/portage/profiles/
|-- arch
|   |-- amd64 <--------------.
|   |   `-- parent >-------- | ----------------------.
|   -- base <--------------- | ----------------------|
|-- base <-------------------|                       |
|-- default                  |                       |
|   `-- linux <--------------|                       |
|       `-- amd64 <--------- | ------------------.   |
|           |-- parent >-----'                   |   |
|           `-- 13.0 <-----------------------.   |   |
|               |-- parent >---------------- | --|   |
|               `-- desktop <------------.   |   |   |
|                   |-- parent >-------- | --|   |   |
|                   `-- kde              |   |   |   |
|                       `-- parent >-----|   |   |   |
|-- features                             |   |   |   |
|   `-- multilib <-----------.           |   |   |   |
|       `-- lib32 <--------- | --------- | - | - | --'
|           `-- parent >-----'           |   |   |
|-- releases <-----------.               |   |   |
|   `-- 13.0 <---------- | ------------- | - | --'
|       `-- parent >-----'               |   |
`-- targets                              |   |
    `-- desktop <----------------------- | --'
        `--kde <----------- | -----------'
           `-- parent >-----'

The following table gives a quick overview of what subprofile contain what files:

	root folder	arch -amd64	arch -base	base	default -linux	default -linux -amd64	default -linux -amd64 -13.0	default -linux -amd64 -13.0 -desktop	default -linux -amd64 -13.0 -desktop -kde	features -multilib	features -multilib -lib32	releases	releases -13.0	targets -desktop	targets -desktop -kde
eapi	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
make.defaults	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
packages	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
package.build	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
package.mask	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
package.use	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
package.use.force	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
package.use.mask	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
profile.bashrc	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
use.force	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
use.mask	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No

Combining profiles

If there isn't a profile in the Gentoo repository that meets your exact requirements, you can try combining multiple profiles into a single custom profile. An example of this would be combining a hardened profile with a desktop systemd profile, such as default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop/plasma/systemd and default/linux/amd64/17.0/hardened. It is expected that you already have a custom repository set up.

Important
The order in which the profiles are listed in the parent file can drastically affect which features will be enabled/disabled system-wide. If you have emerge resolution problems after switching to the custom profile, try changing the order of the lines in the parent file. It may be impossible to get some combinations to work correctly. Your mileage may vary!

Create a profile name for your hybrid profile. For instance, the combination mentioned above could be named:

plasma-hardened
Create the directory structure in your local repository:

root #local_repo=/usr/local/portage # A common location for the local repository
root #profile_name=plasma-hardened
root #mkdir -p $local_repo/profiles/$profile_name
Reference the profiles from the Portage tree and store them in your new profile's parent file:
root #portage_dir=/usr/portage # A common location for the Portage tree
root #for p in default/linux/amd64/17.0/desktop/plasma/systemd default/linux/amd64/17.0/hardened
```
> do
```
```
>     realpath --relative-to=$local_repo/profiles/$profile_name $portage_dir/profiles/$p
```
```
> done > $local_repo/profiles/$profile_name/parent
```
Insert the newly created profile in your repository's profiles.desc:

root #arch=amd64 # Your architecture of choice
root #type=dev # The profile's type: stable or dev
root #echo "$arch $profile_name $type" >> $local_repo/profiles/profiles.desc
Switch to the new profile using eselect:
root #eselect profile list
```
   ...
```
```
 [38] local:plasma-hardened
```
root #eselect profile set 38
Run a world rebuild, but first check to make sure that the desired changes are going into effect. If not, you may need to adjust the order of the lines in the parent file:

root #emerge -DNua --complete-graph @world

External resources

Profile (Portage)

Contents

Structure

Combining profiles

See also

External resources