The idea that history is not associated with text configuration files
is completely false.  Registries, on the other hand, seem to really have no
concept of history and change logs unless the application which controls
them has a notion of history.  We have a number of text files that many
people edit around here.  We train them all to use RCS judiciously and find
that we have a good history of who did what and when.  This is one area
where text files as configuration files shine, in my opinion.
-Brian

On Dec 9, 10:59pm, Paul Evans wrote:
} Subject: proposed: changes to "etc" (?)
} 
} One of the specific draw backs of UNIX I keep running up against is the
} difficulties related to configuration across software packages and 
} different UNIXices. Specficly I'm talking about files in any dir that 
} ends in "etc"
} 
} Having said that, I acknowledgbe there's nothing we can do about other 
} peoples misguided beliefs (Hello Solaris Dev team are you there?)
} 
} I'm not propsing to instigate something the Red Sysadmin book refers to 
} as a "vendor gratuitous change" But, I think an initive is needed here, 
} for several reasons:
} 
} 	1. difficulties in management due to differnces in format
} 	2. error prone by nature, i.e. typos
} 	3. lack of history log
} 	4. Security concerns (This last to are far ranging)
} 	5. Program inplementations of parsers are redundant (hence more 
} 		possible failure points)
} 
} From what I can see there are two possible alternitive solutions:
} 
} 	1. A user mode configuration library that uses a protected
} 		binary file. (a *gasp* registry)
} 
} 	2. A VFS based solution involving mounting the above to create 
} 		the illusion of the files in "etc" (as ascii), but with 
} 		an API for program use.
} 
} Just wanted to pitch this out as I suspect it could have a lot to do with 
} the proposed capabilties an HSM or new VFS layers/drivers 
} 
} thanks for listening.
} 
} --
} 	Paul Evans  
} 	paule@martex.gen.oh.us _ pevans@cleindians.com
} 
>-- End of excerpt from Paul Evans