linux registry (no, not that again!)

Jonathan Andrews jon at jonshouse.co.uk
Wed Jul 28 19:05:28 UTC 2004


On Wed, 2004-07-28 at 19:44, markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
> After lurking for some time, I have heard the call for some
> "registry-esque" facility in Linux for some time. I think there is an
> important distiction to be drawn very carefully, and it falls within the
> UNIX ideals.
> 
> An API need not and should not imply the format of the data being
> modified. The API should be defined by "need," and the data storage should
> be designed to to (1) handle the API and (2) satisfy external requirements
> like text files, "/etc" default, subdirectories, etc.
> 
> For the API, a simple NAME=VALUE paring is not good enough. As was pointed
> out by a previous post, Windows had a Private Profile API. When combined
> with a file name and a title heading should be good enough for most all
> configurations. Over time, I can easily see it gaining popularity.
> 
> Like the Windows Registry, I can see this growing into a horrible monster.
^^Only is people are daft enough to try and treat it as a binary
container. If the program needs binary data then stick it in ... wait
for it ... another file ! If the file gets to big - then more files, if
the data has a relationship then use directories and files. If it has
records, relationships and queries then its database problem, not a
simple configuration problem. 

You probably think i'm being a bit simple at this point, but why have a
full API for configuration if all thats missing an API for writing and
reading text, not a database engine - not even some clever API with
switchable back ends  - just functions for text. 

You are not going to get people to agree on a common standard for
configuration, most projects have drifted towards Variable=value pairs
or XML. If the application is using XML then it probably already has a
library for driving it - and is also using it for more than simple
configuration.

Before anyone suggests it - Perl is ok, but do you want it as a core
dependency for everything.

Jon







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