The use flag "java" should be split. For example, mozilla-firefox only requires JRE (the ebuild has only): RDEPEND="virtual/x11 (...) java? ( virtual/jre ) However, db (version 4.1.25_p1-r3, latest stable) has: DEPEND="tcltk? ( dev-lang/tcl ) java? ( virtual/jdk )" RDEPEND="tcltk? ( dev-lang/tcl ) java? ( virtual/jre )" This means, that when I have emerged sun-jre for web browsing, and decide to update world (with java flag set), portage wants to emerge a jdk as well (blackdown-jdk). Therefore, I think that these java USE-flags should be split depending on whether the ebuild utilizes JRE or JDK.. Desired result is that I can set USE="java-jre" emerge mozilla-firefox ...emerges a jre (whatever that may be, blackdown, sun, etc) emerge db ...does NOT emerge a JDK. If it requires JDK for the java functionality, then don't utilize java at all.
Well, the use flag is for java support some need a jdk others a jre .. if you only want one, isntall a jdk, it includes a jre
Well, I'll resort to per-package use-flags (/etc/portage/package.use) then (+java for web browser, -java for everything that requires jdk).
