From owner-svn-src-head@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 10 21:26:34 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: svn-src-head@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 71A9E2E2; Thu, 10 Jul 2014 21:26:34 +0000 (UTC) Received: from nk11p03mm-asmtp002.mac.com (nk11p03mm-asmtp002.mac.com [17.158.232.237]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DES-CBC3-SHA (168/168 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.me.com", Issuer "VeriSign Class 3 Extended Validation SSL SGC CA" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4AD042672; Thu, 10 Jul 2014 21:26:33 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Received: from kruse-25.3.ixsystems.com (unknown [69.198.165.132]) by nk11p03mm-asmtp002.mac.com (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7u4-27.10(7.0.4.27.9) 64bit (built Jun 6 2014)) with ESMTPSA id <0N8I00JKSJFVBR80@nk11p03mm-asmtp002.mac.com>; Thu, 10 Jul 2014 20:26:23 +0000 (GMT) X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version: vendor=fsecure engine=2.50.10432:5.12.52,1.0.14,0.0.0000 definitions=2014-07-10_07:2014-07-10,2014-07-10,1970-01-01 signatures=0 X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=notspam policy=default score=0 spamscore=0 suspectscore=0 phishscore=0 adultscore=0 bulkscore=0 classifier=spam adjust=0 reason=mlx scancount=1 engine=7.0.1-1402240000 definitions=main-1407100228 Subject: Re: svn commit: r268491 - head/usr.bin/users From: Jordan Hubbard In-reply-to: <4B20737F-FB09-47DF-982F-E17F8989B83F@cl.cam.ac.uk> Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:26:18 -0700 Message-id: <172E965B-FCFE-4DA8-A845-08AEF931BD3B@me.com> References: <201407101215.s6ACF3v1055260@svn.freebsd.org> <20140710152353.GF1812@ptrcrt.ch> <20140710154213.GG1812@ptrcrt.ch> <20140710155342.GB93051@ivaldir.etoilebsd.net> <53BEC65D.10501@freebsd.org> <4B20737F-FB09-47DF-982F-E17F8989B83F@cl.cam.ac.uk> To: David Chisnall X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1878.6) Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.18 Cc: Ed Schouten , Adrian Chadd , "src-committers@freebsd.org" , "svn-src-all@freebsd.org" , Baptiste Daroussin , Nathan Whitehorn , Pietro Cerutti , "svn-src-head@freebsd.org" X-BeenThere: svn-src-head@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: SVN commit messages for the src tree for head/-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 21:26:34 -0000 On Jul 10, 2014, at 10:20 AM, David Chisnall wrote: > This is important in a wider context. For example, in the project to add machine-readable output to core utilities, we'd like to be able to parse these into the same machine-readable format. Apple has the CoreFoundation library for this, which provides a load of stuff, but most importantly number, string, date, dictionary, and array types (i.e. the sorts of things that you'd want in JSON-like serialisation formats). Just as important as CoreFoundation are APIs like CFPreferences. I find it frankly horrifying that in the year 2014, anyone who writes a new daemon or system service will have to invent their own ad-hoc configuration file format in /etc (because, you know, there really aren't enough of them there now) as well as their own out-of-band mechanism for detecting when the configuration data changes. Having a data serialization format would the first step. - Jordan