The "cups" and "foomatic-db" USE flags are set in make.defaults, but "ppds" is not. If ppds is set and cups/foomatic is emerged, then all the print driver ppd files are generated automatically. This is the preferred behavior for most users, especially newbies who often do not know to set this flag. Only 5-10 mb of space is needed for the ppd files, so there is little to lose by enabling the ppds USE flag by default. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.forget to set ppds USE flag 2.emerge cups foomatic 3. Actual Results: No ppd files are generated. This means the driver I need for printer X is not automatically available. Expected Results: All ppd files should be generated by default. Then I can easily find the driver for printer X.
there is a lot more wast of space and waste of time during emerge. the printing howto describes howto add a printer with foomatic
