Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 11:56:56 -0500 From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@freefall.cdrom.com> Cc: freebsd-bugs@freefall.cdrom.com Subject: Re: Changed information for PR misc/278 Message-ID: <9503291656.AA14584@halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <12916.796469126@freefall.cdrom.com> References: <199503290530.PAA18058@godzilla.zeta.org.au> <12916.796469126@freefall.cdrom.com>
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<<On Wed, 29 Mar 1995 01:25:26 -0800, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@freefall.cdrom.com> said:
> Sigh.. I think it must be said: Most of /etc is a mess, it always has
> been a mess and all I've ever seen other operating systems do with it
> is make it a more *convoluted* mess (SVR4 - gag me!). What's the
> cool, killer paradigm shift we're missing here? :-)
Well, I like what Paul has done with the RC files.
As for configuration, I have had a dream occasionally that we could
have a completely integrated, text-file-based, configuration database
system with a different sort of naming concept.
The idea was as follows:
1) Configuration specifications are hierarchical, named along the same
lines as sysctl(8) MIB variables: net.inetd.conf, disk.quotas.enabled,
config.lkm.autoload, passwd.userclass.grimblepritz.expiretime, etc.
2) Configuration information is stored in files with multiple
sections, or in directories, or both. So, disk.quotas.enabled might
be stored in a file called ${CONFIG_ROOT}/config, or /disk, or
/disk/config, or /disk/quotas, or /disk/quotas/config.
3) Database schema information is integrated with the configuration
information, so that for every section (like disk.quotas), there is
also a schema.disk.quotas section, with entries like `entries' and
`entry.description' and `entry.type'.
4) A search path for configuration information, so that site-wide
defaults with local overrides can be established easily. (Default
/etc/config:/usr/share/config.)
5) A central libconfig to make this all work, and user applications to
edit it in a reasonable way.
No, I don't plan on implementing it. But it would be nice.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | Shashish is simple, it's discreet, it's brief. ...
wollman@lcs.mit.edu | Shashish is the bonding of hearts in spite of distance.
Opinions not those of| It is a bond more powerful than absence. We like people
MIT, LCS, ANA, or NSA| who like Shashish. - Claude McKenzie + Florent Vollant
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