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

[David Lutterkort]

On Mon, 2008-04-21 at 09:42 +1000, Mike MacCana wrote:
> Is there a possibility that Augeas could encourage, or actively patch,
> applications to read their configuration directly from Augeas format
> files? 

As I said before, there's little point in making apps use the same
mechanism to just read a config file as the one used by a config editor
to read and write it.

> A distribution has never encouraged apps to standardize on a config file
> format. There's a real opportunity here.

The road is littered with config projects that got run over by their own
ambition. In sys mgmt, premature modeling is the root of all evil.

For Augeas, my ambition is to make it a tool that is useful for
modifying configuration data as it exists today, and be applicable in as
many situations as possible. Once we get it there, we can think about
grander things; until then, being able to use Augeas with unmodified
applications is imperative.

David