-# LDFLAGS comes from.. somewhere else.
-LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
+# and from make.conf, allowing the values in make.conf to override the
+# ones in the profile.
+if [ -f /etc/portage/make.conf ]; then
+ source /etc/portage/make.conf
+fi
+
+
+# Not a portage variable, but it's real handy.
+REPOS="${DISTDIR}/../repositories"