[OpenAFS-devel] Selecting a configuration file format for OpenAFS Services

[u+openafsdev-t07O@chalmers.se]

Hello Derrick,

On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 09:10:38AM -0400, Derrick Brashear wrote:
> Consider the case which pushed us here. You have an array of numbers.
> It's a set of timeout values, which apply when you have between a
> certain number of callers.
> 
> You can, of course, just pass an argument which is a comma separated
> list of timeouts. What do they mean? Well, you don't need to pass
> those numbers, so, well, just make sure you order things right.
> 
> But wait. What happens if you want to also make the ranges the
> timeouts apply in tunable? Do you now pass 2 lists, one for the bucket
> ranges and one for the timeouts, or a set of pairs? How do you
> delineate the pairs?

Whatever is the challenge, it is about formulating some information
as text, either in a configuration file or on the command line.

Note that a configuration file is a sequence of bytes usually representing
a sequence of characters and a command line option is a sequence of
bytes usually representing a sequence of characters.

What makes you think that they are differently capable
of representing a certain piece of information?

Note also that I do not advocate actually typing the options on the
command line. It hardly happens in production environments anyway,
one writes scripts which do the job.

Best regards,
Rune