dev-libs/xapian-bindings-1.0.6 currently is not keyworded for the ppc hardware platform. I emerged it with python and ruby use flags and have not had any problems when calling it from a ruby program. I think the ppc keyword can be added. Reproducible: Always emerge --info Portage 2.1.6.13 (default/linux/powerpc/ppc32/10.0, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2, 2.6.30-gentoo-r5 ppc) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.30-gentoo-r5-ppc-7455,_altivec_supported-with-gentoo-1.12.13 Timestamp of tree: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:45:01 +0000 app-shells/bash: 4.0_p28 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.8-r1 dev-lang/python: 2.6.2-r1 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.13 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.6-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.63-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.6.3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.6a virtual/os-headers: 2.6.27-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="ppc" CBUILD="powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -mtune=powerpc -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe" CHOST="powerpc-unknown-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c /etc/udev/rules.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=powerpc -mtune=powerpc -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo http://gentoo.osuosl.org/" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" LINGUAS="en_US en" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage/layman/java-overlay /usr/local/portage/layman/sunrise" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="acl afs berkdb bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cups dri emacs fortran gdbm gpm iconv ipv6 kerberos modules mudflap ncurses nls nptl nptlonly openmp pam pcre perl ppc pppd python readline reflection session spl ssl sysfs tcpd unicode xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="aoa aoa-fabric-layout aoa-onyx aoa-soundbus aoa-soundbus-i2s aoa-tas aoa-toonie powermac usb-audio via82xx" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en_US en" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev glint mach64 mga nv r128 radeon savage tdfx trident voodoo" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Marked the latest ~ppc, thanks for the report!