YaST
| Company type | Software utility |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | April 1995 |
| Founder | SUSE |
| Products | Configuration and installation utility for Linux systems |
| Website | en |
YaST (an acronym for Yet another Setup Tool) is a configuration and installation utility for Linux systems, created by SUSE. It plays a central role in the openSUSE Linux distribution and SUSE’s commercial versions, and was once part of the now-obsolete United Linux distribution.
Offering extensive system administration features, YaST facilitates tasks such as software deployment, hardware setup, network configuration, and server management.
YaST was first introduced in April 1995 and made its initial appearance within a SuSE distribution in May 1996. A complete rewrite occurred in 1999, after which it was released solely as an installer in SuSE Linux 6.3. The enhanced YaST2, which brought additional desktop-related capabilities, was launched with SuSE Linux 6.4 and fully superseded the original YaST by the release of SuSE Linux 8.0.
Details
Since 2004, YaST has been distributed as free software under the GNU General Public License. It offers both graphical user interface (GUI) and text-based interface (TUI) options, allowing administrators to manage systems either directly or remotely via limited connections where no graphical environment is available.
The package management functionality within YaST is powered by the ZYpp project. Although early ZYpp integration experienced performance drawbacks, these were substantially addressed by the time openSUSE 10.3 was released. Starting with openSUSE 11.0 alpha 3, the inclusion of a SAT solver significantly accelerated package management operations beyond those of other RPM-based tools.
Earlier versions of YaST included SaX and SaX2 modules designed for sophisticated X server configuration; however, these components were removed by openSUSE Leap 42.1.
Ongoing enhancements continue to refine YaST’s capabilities—for instance, openSUSE Leap 15.1 introduced upgrades such as improved firewall controls, enhanced command-line tools, a refreshed logo design, and more advanced partitioning utilities.
Originally developed using a proprietary scripting language called YCP, YaST transitioned to Ruby beginning with openSUSE 13.1.
With the release of openSUSE Leap 16.0, SUSE intends to phase out YaST in favor of newer web-oriented management solutions: the Cockpit project will take over the role of Control Center; Agama will function as the next-generation web installer; and Myrlyn will emerge as a standalone Qt-based front end for ZYpp independent from YaST.
AutoYaST
AutoYaST facilitates unattended installation of multiple openSUSE systems through a control file that contains all necessary installation and configuration details. Each system’s profile is saved in /root/autoyast.xml.
WebYaST
WebYaST provides a browser-based interface for managing YaST remotely. It enables administrators to perform package installations, reboot or shut down systems, adjust time settings, and control various system services and daemons from a distance.
YaST4Debian
Following YaST’s licensing shift to GPL in 2004, the YaST4Debian initiative began aiming to port YaST functionalities to Debian distributions. Working closely with Novell/SuSE’s YaST development team, this project achieved progress such as adapting the yast2-ncurses and yast2-qt modules. Currently, the project is inactive and searching for new maintainers.
See also
- Webmin
- GAdmintools
- Calamares
- APT (software)
- RPM Package Manager