System access

YaST provides thorough probing of the system hardware and presents the information gathered thereby via the SCR-API. The SCR is also the means for reading and writing configuration files.

Reasonable Suggestions

Based on the system analysis and predefined configuration data, YaST is able to provide reasonable suggestions for almost any configuration task.

Workflows

Management of particular configuration categories is usually realized in form of workflows that split up the whole task into small steps.

Modules and YCP

The steps constituting a workflow are usually realized as YaST-modules that are written in the YaST Control Language (YCP)

User interface

The user interface of YaST is realized by means of a specific API from within the YCP-modules. This API supports a text-based console-mode as well as a graphical X11-mode.

Internationalization

YaST provides support for various languages.

Multi-platform support

YaST provides support for various platforms like Intel™ (x86), Apple™, IBM™ (s390) etc.