[et-mgmt-tools] ANNOUNCE: Augeas - a configuration API

[David Lutterkort]

On Fri, 2008-04-18 at 12:02 +1000, Mike MacCana wrote:
> * create an editor for that format (which handles data - settings,
> values, parents and children, rather than presentation related info
> like lines and paragraph)

At its heart, Augeas is a tool to make writing such editors easy, easier
than starting from scratch for every format. Of course, there's also
benefit for users if they can edit many config files with the same tool
instead of having a separate tool for each config file.

> Using 'widely varying formats' is not 'valuable'.

I was a little oblique .. I meant 'that config data is stored in text
files is valuable', mostly to contrast that with some other approaches
that have been proposed in the past.

>  It's an unfortunate accident that wastes everyone's time with various
> horrible bandaid solutions

I think we're all in agreement that the situation is far from the best
imaginable. That's why I chose "Augeas"[1] as the name for this ;)

David

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augeas 

  "In Greek mythology, Augeas ... was King of Elis ... He is best known for his
   stables, which housed the single greatest number of cattle in the country and
   had never been cleaned"