System-config Reworking Proposal

[Lubomir Kundrak]

On Mon, 2007-11-19 at 10:27 -0600, Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> On Nov 19, 2007 7:07 AM, Lubomir Kundrak <lkundrak at redhat.com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > On Mon, 2007-11-19 at 01:18 -0600, Arthur Pemberton wrote:
> > > I have expressed my ideas[1] to add and rework some of the
> > > functionality of the system-config tools with the hope of making them
> > > a bit more innovative and useful.
> > >
> > > Please comment on the idea.
> >
> > > Rework (not a total rewrite) system-config tools use a common virtual console which abstracts away local and remote console usage. Anticipated benefits:
> > >
> > >     * transparently handle local or remote console (via ssh)
> > >           o allow configuration of remote services
> >
> > this is possible now:
> > ssh -X my.server system-config-httpd
> 
> One question: I know about this method, but have never tried it myself
> - doesn't it require an xserver on the host?

It does not. Why would it?

> One comment: The crowd that really love the system-config tools would
> like prefer not to be doing x forwarding via SSH

Why? Wasn't it the reason why X forwarding was born? Well, he can do
that without the forwarding, by just setting DISPLAY, with no obvious
benefits :)

> > >           o possible allow for OS independent usage (example: system-config-httpd could be used from Windows XP)
> >
> > You can do the very same thing from Windows XP.
> 
> I was thinking more in terms of the user just running system-config-*
> on Fedora|Windows|* and just enter in a host and passkey|user+pass and
> make changes to the target system

Well, it needs some fixes in Windows upstream. Until it happens,
cygwin/X is comfortable enough.

> > >           o allow for those who prefer not to run server tools with a X server installed to make use of the system-config tools
> >
> > None of the system-config-* tools depends on X server except for
> > system-config-display.
> 
> True, but you do generally need a GUI to make use of the GUI system-config tools

Will the proposed changes make me use the tools without a graphical
interface? Is the proposal about providing a TUI for each tool?

-- 
Lubomir Kundrak (Red Hat Security Response Team)