Re: Configuration storage

["DavE sEXTON" <jack spuddy mew co uk>]

> From: Ian Wells <I.Wells@tarragon-et.co.uk>
> To: gnome-list@gnome.org
> Subject: Configuration storage
> Date: 17 June 1998 10:03
> 
> I think I know the answer to this, but I'll ask anyway... ;-)
> 
> Is the configuration file system set in stone yet?  It's just that I
> can see one big advantage we have over a Windows-like system (other
> than not using a Windows registry ;-) is that we can run applications
> remotely.  In order that you keep your desktop settings, theming and
> everything else consistent, I would think you'd want to access program
> settings via the X server (as apps do now, using xrdb) rather than via
> the filesystem.

Is it feasible to have this configuration database split into five discrete
sections?
Each section would contain (mostly) the same options and would have an
order of precedence. As we progress down the list, the option group would
have lower precedence and have fewer options available:

* Machine Settings
* Group Settings
* Network Settings
* User Settings
* System Defaults

The machine settings would be set by the administrator and is used to setup
any settings for each individual machine (or group of machines).
The group settings would be set by the administrator and is used to setup
any restrictions for user groups.
The network settings would be set by the administrator and is used to
define settings that may not have been setup by the preceding two.

Eg:
A program 'MyProg' might have the following options:

DataPath	# The location of data files
CanDelete	# Is the delete function available?

For the Network settings, you could set the DataPath to '/usr/data' and
CanDelete to 'no'
For one machine, the data is located at '/mnt/other/data' so you could set
the DataPath for that machine to '/mnt/other/data'
The users in group 'trustedusers' should be able to delete so simply set
the CanDelete option for the 'trustedusers' group to 'yes'.
Because of the precedence applied, you can set sensible defaults with
useful extensions. The User Settings and System defaults work in a similar
way but would usually be used for more 'preference' type settings such as
colour schemes etc.

What do you think??

David