diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb b/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb
index 41422ed9e2..ebf2235ed9 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb
@@ -143,6 +143,14 @@ module HomebrewEnvExtension
   def enable_warnings
     remove_from_cflags '-w'
   end
+  # so yeah, GNU gettext is a funny one, if you want to use it, you need to
+  # call this function, see gettext.rb for info.
+  def gnu_gettext
+    gettext = Formula.factory 'gettext'
+    ENV['LDFLAGS'] += " -L#{gettext.lib}"
+    ENV['CPPFLAGS'] = "#{ENV['CPPFLAGS']} -I#{gettext.include}"
+    ENV['PATH'] += ":#{gettext.bin}"
+  end
 
 private
   def append key, value
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
index cd095f05e2..ee9bd36f64 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/formula.rb
@@ -114,13 +114,16 @@ class Formula
   #     :p1 =>  'http://bar.com/patch2',
   #     :p2 => ['http://moo.com/patch5', 'http://moo.com/patch6']
   #   }
-  # The final option is to return DATA, then put a diff after __END__ and you
+  # The final option is to return DATA, then put a diff after __END__. You
   # can still return a Hash with DATA as the value for a patch level key.
   def patches; end
   # reimplement and specify dependencies
   def deps; end
   # sometimes the clean process breaks things, return true to skip anything
   def skip_clean? path; false end
+  # rarely, you don't want your library symlinked into the main prefix
+  # see gettext.rb for an example
+  def keg_only?; false end
 
   # yields self with current working directory set to the uncompressed tarball
   def brew
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/install.rb b/Library/Homebrew/install.rb
index 3f887e99aa..575fbe8f3f 100755
--- a/Library/Homebrew/install.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/install.rb
@@ -6,6 +6,21 @@ require 'brew.h'
 
 show_summary_heading = false
 
+def text_for_keg_only_formula f
+  <<-EOS
+#{f.name} is keg-only. This means it is not symlinked into Homebrew's
+prefix. The formula provides the following rationale:
+
+#{f.keg_only?}
+
+Generally there are no consequences of this for you, however if you build your
+own software and it requires this formula, you may want to run this command to
+link it into the Homebrew prefix:
+
+     brew link #{f.name}
+  EOS
+end
+
 def install f  
   build_time = nil
 
@@ -71,14 +86,19 @@ def install f
     end
   end
 
-  begin
-    Keg.new(f.prefix).link
-  rescue Exception
-    onoe "The linking step did not complete successfully"
-    puts "The package built, but is not symlinked into #{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}"
-    puts "You can try again using `brew link #{f.name}'"
-    ohai e, e.inspect if ARGV.debug?
+  if f.keg_only?
+    ohai 'Caveats', text_for_keg_only_formula(f)
     show_summary_heading = true
+  else
+    begin
+      Keg.new(f.prefix).link
+    rescue Exception
+      onoe "The linking step did not complete successfully"
+      puts "The package built, but is not symlinked into #{HOMEBREW_PREFIX}"
+      puts "You can try again using `brew link #{f.name}'"
+      ohai e, e.inspect if ARGV.debug?
+      show_summary_heading = true
+    end
   end
 
   ohai "Summary" if ARGV.verbose? or show_summary_heading