System set (Portage)

The system set, also referred to as @system in Portage development, contains the software packages required for a standard Gentoo Linux installation to run properly.

The system packages are defined by the Gentoo profiles (through the packages files). An end-user can easily see which packages are seen as part of the system set by running the following emerge command:

user $emerge --pretend @system

Listing the system set

Various tools can be used to list the system set.

eix

For eix, issue:

user $eix -c --system

See also

• World set (Portage) — encompasses the system set, the selected set, and the @profile set.
• /etc/portage/sets — an optional directory that is used to create user defined package sets
• Selected set (Portage) — contains the packages the admin has explicitly installed
• Selected-packages_set_(Portage) — contains the user-selected "world" packages that are listed in the /var/lib/portage/world file.