dselect.cfg(5)

💖 dselect.cfg — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, so this is dselect.cfg(5) — the manual page for the config file of dselect, which is part of the dpkg suite. it's giving "settings board but as a text file" and honestly? iconic. let's go 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

dselect.cfg — the dselect configuration file. that's it. that's the name. short, sweet, ate 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so like, this file is where you stash the default options for dselect. think of it as the group chat where dselect checks what vibe it should show up with before it does literally anything.

the rules are lowkey simple:

• Each line holds a single option — and it's exactly the same as a normal command line option for dselect, except for one tiny lil glow-up: the leading hyphens are not used here. so no --, bestie. leave them at home. 🙈
• Quotes wrapping around option values? stripped. gone. they don't survive the trip. ✂️
• Wanna leave a note for your future self? comments are allowed — just start the line with a hash sign (#). periodt. 💜

no cap: option names stay character-for-character what they'd be on the command line, you're literally just yeeting the dashes and keeping the rest. 🫶

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🎀 FILES 🎀

here's where she looks, in her little treasure hunt:

• /etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg.d/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*
• /etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg
• ~/.dselect.cfg

three spots. that's the whole itinerary. 🌈

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• dselect(1) — go read her, she's the main character fr fr.

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⭐ little reminder bestie: this whole page is about dselect.cfg and nothing else, so don't be out here inventing options that aren't in the original. iykyk.

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this lil slice of the docs comes to you from version 1.23.7, dated 2026-09-16, brought to you by the dpkg suite 💖✨ mwah, go configure something slay 🎀🦋