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Solving the /etc Situation?
mrfibbi asks: "/etc is a mess, plain and simple. Each program has its own (incompatible) config file format and the naming scheme/hierarchy is left almost solely to the author. Furthermore, package updates are a mess, either choosing to replace the entire config file, reject any updated versions (which leads to inconsistencies), or, as is the case with etc-update, asking the user to manually merge the files, which takes forever after a big update. We've revamped /dev with udev, but we've still failed to come up with a universal, duct-tape-free solution for the problem. Though solutions exist, there has been little or no adoption, either due to a personal dislike for the idea or API, or just an indifference to the problem. Should we work toward migrating to an Elektra-like system? Something else? Or do most simply find it not worth the trouble?"
What's the conceptual differences between
andexcept that the latter can be browsed and edited with any editor that understands XML (as opposed to only Vim with the file-format-specific highlighter), can be deterministically validated by generic tools, and doesn't require the program's author to implement his own configuration file parser?XML isn't a perfect fit everywhere, but /etc is one of the places I think it works brilliantly.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
The user registry should be in the user's home directory.
Ever wonder what that NTUSER.DAT file in your home directory is?
I want a system where I can get a list of running services (not just all processes), the ports on which they are listening (I don't care if they are TCP, UDP, Unix domain, whatever passes for IPC on Windows, or even Mach ports), and be able to trivially turn a service on, or off, or configure it with a simple commandline or a click of the mouse.
Are you aware of netstat -anp as root?
chkconfig fulfills a lot of your later wants too.
I'm happy using those tools, if you want to write a front end UI, feel free! It wouldn't be hard, mostly just external calls to those commands.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
The only things centralized about the registry are that it has a single database server that does the actual file writes while providing a high level API, and it has a single-root hierarchy.l \hivelist contains a list of all the hives to be automatically mounted at startup. Go ahead, divide the registry into as many hives as you want, and put them where ever you want.
/etc it would be any better documented or organized?
Data in the registry is stored in hives mounted at various places in the registry's hierarchy. The registry's root is a key named \REGISTRY in the Object Manager's namespace. Win32 confuses things a little by renaming \REGISTRY\MACHINE to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and \REGISTRY\USER to HKEY_USERS, and providing some pseudo keys, like for the current user, but the idea is the same. The RegLoadKey, RegUnLoadKey and RegSaveKey functions can be used to dynamically mount, unmount and copy hives in the registry. The key \REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro
What I'm trying to say is that the registry is no more centralized than the VFS is in Linux. The registry consists of various hives mounted at different locations, just like the VFS consists of various filesystems mounted at different locations.
As for messyness, is this due to the structure of the registry itself, or Microsoft's usage of it: do you really think that if Windows used an
Personally, I don't think the layout is all that bad.
I use Postfix in preference to Sendmail on every machine I have control over, and it hasn't reduced my "angst" any.