From owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Mon Nov 30 23:26:40 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 81685A3C249 for ; Mon, 30 Nov 2015 23:26:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from arlie@worldash.org) Received: from ansuz.worldash.org (ansuz.worldash.org [198.144.201.100]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5D4361898; Mon, 30 Nov 2015 23:26:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from arlie@worldash.org) Received: by ansuz.worldash.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 1E286E1923; Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:22:35 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:22:35 -0800 From: Arlie Stephens To: Dan Partelly Cc: Mark Heily , freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Allan Jude Subject: Re: libUCL / UCL as FreeBSD config question Message-ID: <20151130232235.GA11581@worldash.org> References: <5B598F72-C5DD-48FD-866D-F90E117D646E@rdsor.ro> <564F6118.5030702@freebsd.org> <5576AC9A-791F-4B52-9433-32D2806D35C9@rdsor.ro> <564F8E1F.8060600@freebsd.org> <663FAC89-8B0B-4E20-85F2-36C346A3AC73@rdsor.ro> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <663FAC89-8B0B-4E20-85F2-36C346A3AC73@rdsor.ro> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2015 23:26:40 -0000 On Nov 24 2015, Dan Partelly wrote: > A proper solution might need kernel support,and quit using text > files for OS config. Hence IMO a proper solution has very few > chances to be implemented. Most people seem to have some fetish > with text files, and like to be stuck in past. It is like somehow > magically .txt files are immune to corruption, but any other format > is not. Ugh! Text files tend to make things human comprehensible, in ways that configuration tools do not. I continue to adminster my Macintosh systems via "sudo" from a shell window, because the result makes sense. Show me a system that's 1) convenient 2) comprehensible 3) backwards compatible (upgrading from before isn't a PITA) 4) forwards compatible (I don't have to reprogram my brain every other release) 5) accessible when the system is somewhat crippled (single user mode after a failure) And I might get over my "fetish" for text files. And for the record, I've used various "registry" solutions to kernel config., notably the one added to HPUX around about their 11.0, and even developed code that used this system. It's doubtless possible to design a non-text system that provides the benefits that text based systems get for free. Unfortunately, I've never seen such a system where that remained a consistent priority. -- Arlie (Arlie Stephens arlie@worldash.org)