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Thread: Standard configuration files
Standard configuration files
user name
 2006-06-09 00:02:58 

  


  

    
Hi!

I've been working with Linux for a few years now and one of the things I like most about it is the possibility of configuring everything by modifying readable text files. This is good but if you need to configure several services you may ask yoursel: why are all the configuration files for all the services so different? couldn't we come out with a standard file format that all services, devices, etc would use? What do you think? Here some ideas to begin with:

1. It'd have to be based in XML-dtd. Two important reasons, first it's a widely used standard, and second it's readable enough... and I can think of another one: it can describe very complex models.
2. There are already some services that use this kind of configuration files: tomcat... there's a place to start.


Any suggestions are welcomed,

Pedro.


  

  
  
   
     
    

  

    Standard configuration files
  


  

     user name

     2006-06-11 03:28:19
  


  

    
On Thursday 08 June 2006 19:02, "Pedro Bezunartea
López" 
<pedrobezunartea.net> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I've been working with Linux for a few years now and
one of the things I
> like most about it is the possibility of configuring
everything by
> modifying readable text files. This is good but if you
need to configure
> several services you may ask yoursel: why are all the
configuration files
> for all the services so different? couldn't we come
out with a standard
> file format that all services, devices, etc would use?
What do you think?
> Here some ideas to begin with:
> 1. It'd have to be based in XML-dtd. Two important
reasons, first it's a
> widely used standard, and second it's readable
enough... and I can think of
> another one: it can describe very complex models.
> 2. There are already some services that use this kind
of configuration
> files: tomcat... there's a place to start.
>
> Any suggestions are welcomed,
>

First, this thread is off-topic for this list:

http://f
edoraproject.org/wiki/PostIsOffTopic

I'm going to guess you don't have a whole lot of
experience developing 
configuration systems in software applications.  When
developing an 
application, a lot of consideration must go into the
configuration system to 
be used.  The developer will generally make a selection
based upon their 
needs, knowledge and available tools.  Sometimes, an XML
solution might be 
the wise choice, but there are also cases where nothing more
than a flat-file 
with "name=value" pairs is necessary, cases
where a more powerful database is 
needed, and cases where some other structured format or
scripting language 
might be needed.  The number of factors that must be
considered is 
astronomical.  Making a choice for the wrong reasons can
have catastrophic 
consequences.  There is no one right way, and there won't
be in the 
foreseeable future.

-- 
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
nman64n-man.com

http://www.n-man.com/

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