On Mon, 2005-01-10 at 18:19, m g wrote: > I agree. But, many default config files aren't well written, or the > documentation isn't well written, in which case it's nice to know what > fields there are. The best, IMHO, is to have both: text conf file, > with an *optional* tool like webmin. Yes, the other huge advantage of a text file is that when you get one right and have to configure a few dozen other machines the same way you can just copy the file around. Webmin is pretty good at parsing your existing files, keeping them readable and dealing with hand edits between runs. Some other tools are not so nice about those things. > The crashing/buggy syntax problem can easily be solved with proper > logging and error reporting. That assumes that the program wasn't doing anything important and that you have time to debug the problem, neither of which is likely. Programs should offer at least some kind of sanity check like you can do with 'httpd -t' to make sure it won't crash if you really restart with a changed config file. -- Les Mikesell les@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
