This appears to be duplicate of http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18689, but the last modified date on that bug makes it look to me like it should be fixed but it is *not fixed* on my system. I have a fresh install using 2004.0 and the man page for make.conf says this: ** DEBUGBUILD If this is defined, binaries and libraries are not stripped before merge. ** This flag does not work, but I have success with FEATURES="nostrip" The man-page says this in it's final line Portage 2.0.47 Feb 2003 MAKE.CONF(5) so it leads me to believe that the man-page is deprecated and should be deleted.
removed from manpage in cvs