Grepping through sources doesn't show any usage of media-libs/fontconfig. Corresponding configure option just enables useless linking to it.
The option does not enable anything indeed. The only place where it is used is util/Makefile.am is all commented out.
The bug has been closed via the following commit(s): https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=d5fa24ba90f817204f3e0f2fb6e2a15aa0c04458 commit d5fa24ba90f817204f3e0f2fb6e2a15aa0c04458 Author: Lars Wendler <polynomial-c@gentoo.org> AuthorDate: 2019-01-15 12:49:05 +0000 Commit: Lars Wendler <polynomial-c@gentoo.org> CommitDate: 2019-01-15 12:50:07 +0000 media-libs/harfbuzz: Revbumps to remove fontconfig USE flag. Closes: https://bugs.gentoo.org/609300 Package-Manager: Portage-2.3.56, Repoman-2.3.12 Signed-off-by: Lars Wendler <polynomial-c@gentoo.org> .../harfbuzz/{harfbuzz-2.0.2.ebuild => harfbuzz-2.0.2-r1.ebuild} | 6 ++---- .../harfbuzz/{harfbuzz-2.1.3.ebuild => harfbuzz-2.1.3-r1.ebuild} | 6 ++---- .../harfbuzz/{harfbuzz-2.2.0.ebuild => harfbuzz-2.2.0-r1.ebuild} | 6 ++---- .../harfbuzz/{harfbuzz-2.3.0.ebuild => harfbuzz-2.3.0-r1.ebuild} | 6 ++---- 4 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)