hello, I am a computer scientist who administrates a beowulf cluster as part of my research. One of the things I love abouyt linux is the accessibility of the underlying mechanisms of the operating system, such as proc, the config files etc.

However, I am consistently having to invest quite a lot of time and effort setting up configuration files in a unfamiliar syntax for a one-off event.

There I come to this forum wondering if anyone is aware of software which could do this (this is being desperately optimistic, I know)?.

However, given that this is unlikely, would anyone be interested in collaberating with me to provide this kind of a functionality?. I envisage an engine which could take on modules for a particular type of configuration syntax, dealing with a particular type software, such as a pam module, a fluxbox module, etc.

All configurations could operate in a few modes, basic to advanced, so advanced users could still maintain control over the config files but new users don't have to struggle with relatively simple tasks, such as networking.

Finally, each module would be well documented, so basic users can easily advance their knowledge. I'd do this myself only I'm swamped with other work, so if anyones interested, give me a shout : gearoid.murphy@ul.ie

Isn't this what debconf is supposed to do?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debconf_(software_package)

Is gearoid a gaelic name?

yup, irish. debconf's the answer alright, cheers.

actually man, now that I've reflected it on it, debconf isn't what I need. Debconf is specficially designed to retreive info from the user to setup the installation of a package. debconf uses configuration files in /var/lib/dpkg/info to do this.

Now, the critical difference for me is that the configuration system should only use the configuration files that the application actually uses. Some sort of generic parser system would dissect these info files (pam, ldap, xorg, interfaces, hell even .inputrc) and present the user with a number of options for changing these files, these options would fall along the lines of regular tasks performed by the user.

Something like the "wizards" used by windows to make their barely functioning OS seem more palateable to the general populace, only of course, much much better.

It seems doable from where I'm standing, what is your opinion?