On Sun, 1 Jun 1997, Lars Wirzenius wrote: > Craig Sanders: > > This is not only simple to implement, but it is also simple to > > parse... > > Not quite so simple. If you need to allow all characters in the > values, which requires using escapes and stuff, and consequently > also makes it more difficult to parse. The /bin/sh syntax is > inadequate (the rules are way too complicated).
true, that's why i said my example would only work with simple 'name=value' assignments. anything more complicated needs more work. > Making it a requirement for the files to be parsable by the `.' > (source) command in /bin/sh is a bad idea. If nothing else, it makes > it complicated to have multiple locations for the data, and to change > the locations. > You want multiple locations, so that you can have a master database, > shared by all nodes in a network, with local modifications overriding > the master, as necessary. This could be done using your favourite text processing tools (sed, perl, m4, make, whatever) and rdist. I don't agree that multiple locations are necessary - there's more than one way to skin a cat. > Having shell scripts run a `cfgtool' -like program is a much > better idea. My implementation would work, mostly, but if another > is used, I don't mind. As long as the config database is editable with vi (or other text editor), I don't mind. As far as I am concerned, the file format can be anything that works as long as I can still drive it from the command line over a ppp connection and can write whatever sh, ed, sed, awk, or perl scripts i need to automate modification of the file. Craig -- craig sanders networking consultant Available for casual or contract temporary autonomous zone system administration tasks.
