Re: [system-tools]xml configuration file / (libsysconfig?)

[Alex de Landgraaf <alextreme xs4all nl>]

Quoting Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo ximian com>:

> I don't think this should be done in GST. Once there is a configuration
> standard for all distributions and unix flavours, GST should use it, but
> I don't think it's GST's job to design a config standard.
> 
> GST should work with whatever the distro it's running on uses.
> 
> That shouldn't prevent you from trying to push for that standard, but I
> think you'll first have to convince the distro people, much before
> GST :-) It's not worth the effort for GST to invent a new thing that
> probably nobody else would ever use.

This is an interesting discussion from a distro point of view too, however I
agree that it wouldn't be easily realizable. Keeping configurationitems
duplicated would only lead to problems, however I do think GST could provide a
(better/more useful) interface for providing a unified configuration backend,
which would in turn make it easier for others to make different UI's for
configuration tools, and add new backends separately.

Currently, the backends are very useful but also reasonably focussed on
GST.
Retrieving configuration information is done by directly calling a perl script
which dumps a xml file to stdout (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm fairly new to
GST). Configuration can be set my giving each script the --set option and the
new configuration xml on stdin.

As stated, the backends are fairly GST specific. There is no single
interface/API to connect with, there aren't any DTD/Relax NG schemas for the
configuration files. From what I can see, there isn't a way to check which
configuration backends are registered for a platform, without testing them all.
In short, it's more a bunch of scripts than a unified backend detached from
GST. I'm putting it very blunt, I know you guys have been putting in a huge
effort, and it will work well for GST, but imho there is a long way to go
before GST's second goal (unified system configuration) succeeds. Then again,
nobody ever said it would be easy! :)

What am I thinking of? A C API for compiling frontends against, using libxml2
and (at least in the beginning) the current backend scripts, with one simple
commandline tool for retrieving and setting configuration info using xml. Extra
configuration libraries could register (a la pkg-config) with this library by
providing a list of supported platforms and the name (+ schema?) of the new
configuration backend. Configuration clients could easily (via the API or cli)
check which backends and if the necessary backend exists, retrieve the version
of the schema (or the schema itself) and get/set the configuration items like
the separate scripts now. Voila :)

Naturally, a single configuration interface is still far off. But GST, as I see
it, is the most flexible and would be able to bring together distros (and wm's)
if this is done properly. Until that time, getting more and more configuration
tools to use the backend would slowly bring this goal closer.

Anyway, just my two eurocents. I do have a few back/frontends I'd like to see
'unified' for other platforms in my own lill' distro, hence my interest in GST.
Having a libsysconfig would make things so much more easier though (and I'm
prepared to help out if you guys think this is a good idea).

cheers,

Alex de Landgraaf
lead of the morphix project

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