Gentoo's eselect modular framework for configuration and administration utilities

Danny van Dyk  Author
Tom Martin  Contributor
Ulrich Müller  Contributor

Updated September 12, 2009

1.  Project Description

This page contains information about eselect, Gentoo's modular administration and configuration framework.

2.  Developers

Developer Nickname Role
Donnie Berkholz dberkholz Member ( modules )
Shyam Mani fox2mike Member ( documentation )
Piotr Jaroszyński peper Member ( * )
Ulrich Müller ulm Member ( * )

All developers can be reached by e-mail using nickname@gentoo.org.

3.  Introduction

eselect provides a modular configuration framework for Gentoo systems, aiming to centralise and consolidate existing tools. It has a command line interface, but is nonetheless quite friendly.

eselect is written completely in bash, including the modules. This language has proved ideal for this task, as eselect modules are easy to write, simple to maintain, and do not require specific knowledge of a particular language like C, Python or Ruby. eselect modules have a similar structure to Ebuilds.

eselect contains modules for altering the /usr/src/linux symlink, changing the Portage profile, a somewhat experimental but useable interactive module for updating CONFIG_PROTECTed files, a module for handling runlevels andthe init system, and many others.

eselect aims for ease of use and consistency between configuration and adminisation modules used within a Gentoo installation.

4.  Documentation

You can find the official eselect documentation here.