The FEATURES="sandbox ccache autoaddcvs" line of /etc/make.globals is incorrect (imho). There is no way to deselect these options without editing the /etc/make.globals which is strongly discouraged by warning messages. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. remove features sandbox ccache autoaddcvs from /etc/make.conf 2. emerge info 3. Actual Results: in emerge info: FEATURES="sandbox ccache autoaddcvs" Expected Results: in emerge info: FEATURES="" bash-2.05b# emerge info Portage 2.0.49-r3 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.2.3, glibc-2.3.2-r1, 2.4.20-gentoo-r6) ================================================================= System uname: 2.4.20-gentoo-r6 i686 Celeron (Coppermine) distcc 2.9 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=pentium3 -O3" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /var/qmail/control /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/3.1/share/config /usr/share/config" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=i686 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="sandbox ccache autoaddcvs" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/gentoo http://gentoo.oregonstate.edu http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.au.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 oss apm avi crypt cups encode foomaticdb gif jpeg libg++ mad mikmod mmx mpeg ncurses nls pdflib png quicktime spell truetype xml2 xmms xv zlib gtkhtml alsa gdbm berkdb slang readline arts tetex nas bonobo svga tcltk java guile mysql postgres X sdl gpm tcpd pam libwww ssl perl python esd imlib oggvorbis gnome gtk qt kde motif opengl mozilla gphoto2 ldap snmp cdr scanner 3dfx acpi apache2 artswrappersuid doc ethereal flash gd gtk2 ipv6 isdn junit libgda mbox openal pic ppds samba slp socks5 sse tiff usb vhost xml"
root@vapier 0 root # grep ^FEATURES /etc/make.globals FEATURES="sandbox ccache" root@vapier 0 root # grep ^FEATURES /etc/make.conf FEATURES="-sandbox -ccache noauto" root@vapier 0 root # emerge info | grep ^FEATURES= FEATURES="-sandbox -ccache noauto" works fine for me FEATURES is like USE, if you dont specify it, then the default will be used. if you want to explicitly disable it, use -FEATURE
