Re: Why not XML based configurationfiles?

imroy_at_spin.net.au
Date: 07/09/04 

Date: 9 Jul 2004 07:26:14 -0700

Mats wrote:
> Why not make it easier? If you have one standard you don't have to
learn
> every strange syntax of every single configfile.

You do realise that XML is just a standard for formatting documents and
data? And that you must come up with a *schema* to describe your data.
For instance, do we use:

<section>
<option>value</option>
...
</section>

or:

<section option="value"/>

or any number of combinations and permutations. Simply using XML does
not really make the format "standard" in any way.

Oh, and there are a few packages that use XML config files: Icecast and
Jabber come to mind. I haven't been particularly blown away by either's
use of XML config files. They each have their own schema and structure.
I still have to depend on documentation and built-in comments to know
what to put where. XML is also visually "noisier" than simple
option=value text files. Some complex config files may gain from the
inherent structure of XML, but most wouldn't.

> And while were at it, why not put them all in the same damn directory
so we
> don't have to look for them over the whole freakin HD.

Because it's often easier to have seperate functions or aspects of a
package into different config files. It's also easier from a packaging
point of view - an add-on package can simply drop an additional file
into a directory instead of having to tack a section onto the end of
one big config file. Similarly with uninstallation. Debian has really
taken to this approach, having many *.d directories where config
fragments can be placed in seperate files.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Why not XML based configurationfiles?
    ... > something like the way it's done in the default Postfix and Samba config ... > none of the people who're for XML config files have said anything about ... i don't care if it would be XML or any other *standard*. ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: Why not XML based configurationfiles?
    ... If config files are installed elsewhere, ... if your distro doesn't contain the apps you wan't or versions of the ... You can then control where the config files go. ... The windows registry is almost as bad than ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Mouse corruption
    ... and even the kde keyboard mouse emulation - but, ... window: Moving the mouse around within the window just works fine, ... I have not changed any global config ... I also did not change account specific config files explicitely, ...
    (comp.os.linux.x)
  • Good XML editors?
    ... "deserialize XML" approach for configuration, and I've generated XSD ... for my configuration classes so that I can validate my config files. ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.csharp.general)
  • Re: Why not XML based configurationfiles?
    ... > would be wrapped in xml. ... waste of time learning 100 ways to to edit freaking configfiles. ... Config part, the part that contains the current value for the variable. ... >>I know it's important to acces config files from texteditors. ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
Loading