libUCL / UCL as FreeBSD config question

[Arlie Stephens]

On Nov 24 2015, Dan Partelly wrote:
>  A proper solution might need kernel support,and quit using text
>  files for OS config.  Hence IMO a proper solution has very few
>  chances  to be implemented.  Most people seem to have some fetish
>  with text files, and  like to be stuck in past.  It is like somehow
>  magically .txt files are immune to corruption, but any other format
>  is not. 

Ugh!  Text files tend to make things human comprehensible, in ways
that configuration tools do not.  I continue to adminster my Macintosh
systems via "sudo" from a shell window, because the result makes
sense.

Show me a system that's 
1) convenient
2) comprehensible
3) backwards compatible (upgrading from before isn't a PITA) 
4) forwards compatible (I don't have to reprogram my brain every other release) 
5) accessible when the system is somewhat crippled (single user mode
after a failure)

And I might get over my "fetish" for text files.  

And for the record, I've used various "registry" solutions to kernel
config., notably the one added to HPUX around about their 11.0, and
even developed code that used this system. 

It's doubtless possible to design a non-text system that provides the
benefits that text based systems get for free. Unfortunately, I've
never seen such a system where that remained a consistent priority. 

-- 
Arlie

(Arlie Stephens					arlie at worldash.org)