.TP
.B CFLAGS CXXFLAGS
Use these variables to set the desired optimization/CPU instruction settings
-for applications that you compile. Nearly all ebuild files will take advantage
+for applications that you compile. These two variables are passed to the C
+and C++ compilers, respectively. (CXX is used to refer to the C++ compiler
+within many buildsystems.) Nearly all ebuild files will take advantage
of your custom settings, resulting in a Gentoo Linux that is fully customized
to your specifications. Please use sane settings as some packages will fail to
compile/run if the optimizations are too extreme.
\fBINSTALL_MASK\fR except that it is processed just before creation of a binary
package.
.TP
+.B LDFLAGS
+A list of flags to pass to the compiler when the linker will be called. See
+\fBld\fR(1) for linker flags, but don't forget that these flags will be passed
+directly to the compiler. Thus, you must use '-Wl' to escape the flags
+which only the linker understands (see \fBgcc\fR(1)).
+
+\fB***warning***\fR
+.br
+Setting this and other *FLAGS variables arbitrarily may cause compile or
+runtime failures. Bug reports submitted when nonstandard values are
+enabled for these flags may be closed as INVALID.
+.TP
.B MAKEOPTS
Use this variable if you want to use parallel make. For example, if you
have a dual\-processor system, set this variable to "\-j2" or "\-j3" for