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by danmg 2464 days ago
I'm going to pass on this one. How is /etc not 'extensible'? You just add a new file to the directory. Reinventing the windows registry, but this time in JSON, is a lateral move that is only going to complicate maintaining systems.

For user level configuration, you already have too many competing mechanisms for doing this already, and this one requires systemd level integration making it much more coupled to the operating system and system in general.
2 comments
amaccuish 2464 days ago
Actually I'd really like a good user config system. dconf already works pretty well for GUI-environment related things. The problem with the win registry is it isn't all tied up and schema'd. So deleting an app doesn't delete its registry entries (at least for traditional win32 apps).

For /etc I'm not so sure, I've really come round to .ini style files.

I just hope the LDAP integration of this works well. I have a feeling that Poettering won't give a shit if it doesn't work with Active Directory...

And more PKCS#11 support would be great, I love my smartcards :)

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PyroLagus 2464 days ago
> I'm going to pass on this one. How is /etc not 'extensible'?

Without commenting on systemd-homed, since I haven't watched the talk yet; regular users can't modify /etc. Granted, most applications have user local configuration or a command line option to specify a config file, but not all. That said, I suppose you could always user namespace overlay mount a custom directory over /etc to add custom files to it.

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danmg 2464 days ago
The common pattern is to have some system wide file in /etc or /usr/share that is used by default, and allowing the user to override this with a dot-file in their home directory or passing in a config file as a optional argument.

What is being proposed obliterates most of the workflows that people are use to: editing configuration files in the editor of the user's choice and then having the option of using normal backup or using source code repository tools to maintain and version them. Instead, we have the same windows registry mechanism, with some modern flourishes, that most people have ridiculed Microsoft for decades over.

As a user, I can 'strace -e open' and see what locations my program is trying to open. This is very helpful for what configuration data is being read. Everything is a file, and every file operation is a syscall. As a developer, JSON isn't appropriate for every kind of application.

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