• infos = Information about the profile plugin is in keys below
• infos/author = Name name@.nosp@m.libe.nosp@m.lektr.nosp@m.a.or.nosp@m.g
• infos/licence = BSD
• infos/needs =
• infos/provides =
• infos/recommends =
• infos/placements = postgetstorage presetstorage
• infos/status = maintained libc preview unfinished nodoc global
• infos/metadata =
• infos/description =

Following the elektra keyname convention application configurations are stored under /sw/org/myapp/# and /sw/org/myapp/#0/currentis the profile to be used. The profile plugin provides an easy way to switch configuration profiles.

The key /sw/org/myapp/#0/profile defines what profile should be used as current, e.g. /sw/org/myapp/#0/profile = myprofile. If a key /sw/org/myapp/#0/myprofile/key is found and no key /sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key exists an override key will be created linking /sw/org/myapp/#0/currrent/key to /sw/org/myapp/#0/myapp/key If neither /sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key nor /sw/org/myapp/#0/myprofile/key is found, but /sw/org/myapp/#0/%/key, /sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key will be linked to /sw/org/myapp/#0/%/key.

So a cascading lookup will automatically implement following preferences (next to the namespace preferences):

1. Usage of key in current
2. Usage of key in the profile set with profile
3. Usage of key in the % fallback profile

EXAMPLE

Suppose we have the configuration file profile.ini in ~/.config:

% cat profile.ini ``` [] profile = myprofile

[current] key2 = will win

[myprofile] key1 = test1 key2 = test2

[%] key2 = failed? key3 = test3 ```

Then we simply mount it without the profile plugin:

% kdb mount profile.ini /sw/org/myapp/#0 ini

But we have to make sure that the profile plugin is mounted globally:

% kdb global-mount profile

Then we can access /sw/org/myapp/#0 in a profile-aware way:

% kdb ls /sw ``` spec/sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key1 spec/sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key3 user/sw/org/myapp/#0 user/sw/org/myapp/#0/% user/sw/org/myapp/#0/%/key2 user/sw/org/myapp/#0/%/key3 user/sw/org/myapp/#0/current user/sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key2 user/sw/org/myapp/#0/profile user/sw/org/myapp/#0/myprofile user/sw/org/myapp/#0/myprofile/key1 user/sw/org/myapp/#0/myprofile/key2 ```

As we can see with the -v option, we will fetch keys from our myprofile even though we request current:

% kdb get -v /sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key1 ``` got 25 keys searching spec/sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key1, found: spec/sw/org/myapp/#0/current/key1, options: KDB_O_CALLBACK The resulting keyname is user/sw/org/myapp/#0/myprofile/key1 test1 ```

To switch profile we simply have to set one key: ``` kdb set user/sw/org/myapp/#0/profile newprofile ```

Usually, this will be done via commandline by setting proc/sw/org/myapp/#0/profile.