The flag -fomit-frame-pointers breaks dev-lang/ruby-1.8.4-r1 on x86. Removing USE flags and other compiler options one at a time has no effect. The problem is definitely with -fomit-frame-pointer on X86 (though, enabling -O2 and -fomit-frame-pointers at the same time gives a core dump instead of a compiler error, -O2 by itself and any other combination of 'normal' optimizer flags caused no problems) bobo portage # CFLAGS="-fomit-frame-pointers" emerge ruby [snip a lot of stuff].... i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc main.o libruby18-static.a -lpthread -ldl -lcrypt -lm -o miniruby -fomit-frame-pointers -fPIC -DRUBY_EXPORT -rdynamic -Wl,-export-dynamic ./lib/fileutils.rb:1314: undefined method `directory?' for main:Object (NoMethodError) from ./mkconfig.rb:10 make: *** [.rbconfig.time] Error 1 !!! ERROR: dev-lang/ruby-1.8.4-r1 failed. Call stack: ebuild.sh, line 1539: Called dyn_compile ebuild.sh, line 939: Called src_compile ruby-1.8.4-r1.ebuild, line 90: Called die >>> cfg-update-1.8.0-r3 : No new packages have been emerged, checksum index OK... Portage 2.1-r1 (default-linux/x86/2006.0, gcc-3.4.6, glibc-2.3.6-r4, 2.6.16-gentoo-r12 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.16-gentoo-r12 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.6.15 distcc 2.18.3 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.3 [enabled] app-admin/eselect-compiler: [Not Present] dev-lang/python: 2.4.3-r1 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5 dev-util/ccache: 2.3 dev-util/confcache: [Not Present] sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.17 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r7 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2 sys-devel/binutils: 2.16.1-r3 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.13-r3 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.22 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -fomit-frame-pointers -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/gconf /etc/java-config/vms/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=pentium4 -fomit-frame-pointers -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig ccache distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.ussg.iu.edu/pub/linux/gentoo" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude='/distfiles' --exclude='/local' --exclude='/packages'" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 X aac alsa apache2 apm arts avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts cddb cdr cli crypt cups directfb dlloader doc dri dvd eds emboss encode esd examples firefox flac foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gnome gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 imlib ipv6 isdnlog java javascript jpeg junit jython kde libg++ libwww mad mikmod mono motif mp3 mpeg mysql ncurses nls nptl ogg opengl oss pam pcre pdflib perl png pppd python qt qt3 qt4 quicktime readline reflection sdl session source spell spl ssl svg tcltk tcpd threads truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts udev unicode vim-with-x vorbis xinerama xml xmms xorg xv zlib elibc_glibc input_devices_keyboard input_devices_mouse input_devices_evdev kernel_linux userland_GNU video_cards_radeon" Unset: CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS, MAKEOPTS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
-fomit-frame-pointers is *not* a valid flag, you need -fomit-frame-pointer
