Re: config system thoughts

[Kenneth MacDonald <kenny holyrood ed ac uk>]

>>>>> "Havoc" == Havoc Pennington <hp@redhat.com> writes:

    Havoc> On Wed, 21 Jul 1999, Elliot Lee wrote:
    >> CONFIG_PATH=file:/etc/gnome,file:~/.gnome
    >> 
    >> If I read a value from the /foo/bar/baz/bum path that is
    >> currently stored only in /etc/gnome, and then try to write it
    >> again, it should be written under ~/.gnome.
    >> 

    Havoc> Maybe an application could do this, but the user shouldn't
    Havoc> be able to, because the app's state wouldn't change
    Havoc> (/etc/gnome would necessarily override ~/.gnome, making
    Havoc> ~/.gnome irrelevant).

    Havoc> It would be way weird to change a value, click "apply", and
    Havoc> have nothing happen.
 
There are three types of config value to be considered here.

1) Default value,
2) Mandatory value,
3) User value.

Havoc seems to be thinking the read only value early in the path is a
mandatory one, and Elliot assumes it's a default.  They're not the
same, and the API Havoc's describing doesn't seem to allow for default
values.

Of course, as a system admin with many thousands of users I'd like all
three:)

Kenny.

--
ADML Support, EUCS, The University of Edinburgh.