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From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Message-Id: <199607060311.UAA16074@phaeton.artisoft.com>
Subject: Re: SysAdmin Tools - ideas wanted
To: kelly@fsl.noaa.gov (Sean Kelly)
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 1996 20:11:14 -0700 (MST)
Cc: terry@lambert.org, gpalmer@FreeBSD.ORG, ron@infi.net,
        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199607052242.WAA03969@gatekeeper.fsl.noaa.gov> from "Sean Kelly" at Jul 5, 96 04:42:31 pm
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> Seriously, I agree that the administrative commands should be typeable
> just from the command line.  And Tcl can still provide such a ``user
> interface.''

Yes.  I would like them to be database-centric, idempotent, and
reversable.

That is, the same tool should be used to add/delete/list database
entries, potentially for multiple databases.

For instance, the group and passwd files together are two databases
that constitute a credentials management schema.
The "user admin" tool should operate against both databases.

> Consider the primitives lock_passwd_file, append_pwent, lookup_pwent,
> etc., added to a Tcl interpreter (either compiled in or dynamically
> loaded).  Then, make two scripts that use those primitives.  You would
> then use those as follows:
> 
> csh> add_user -login lambert -name "Terry Lambert" -homedir "/u/lambert"
> 
> or
> 
> csh> xuseradmin &
> 
> where add_user is
> 
> 	#!/usr/local/bin/tclsh
> 	...check command line args, set defaults...
> 	if {[lock_passwd_file]} {
> 		append_pwent ...
> 	}
> 
> and xuseradmin is
> 
> 	#!/usr/local/bin/wish
> 	...do it!...

Actually, I was thinking of:

==
#!/bib/sh
#
# xuadmin
#
# X user administration interface

FRONTEND uadmin

==

Where FRONTEND is a program written in TCL, curses, or whatever.

Preferrably, I'd build a front end manager that could dlopen the
appropriate interface based on the environment it is run in (ie: if
there is a DISPLAY environement variable, then FRONTEND would be X;
if not, it would be curses, whatever.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.