[sugar] Configuration Service?

[Albert Cahalan]

cody at lodrige.com writes:

> A "hierarchical configuration system", which are just
> fancy words for a file system paradigm.

Right:

mount -t registry -o loop /etc/system.dat /registry

> 1) Store/Retrieve a value for a string key
> 2) Add/Remove a key sub-tree
> 3) Remove a key
> 4) Be notified when a key or sub-tree is changed, accessed,
>    added, or removed (which of these is really needed?)
> 5) Determine whether a key or sub-tree exists, or not
> 6) Iterate a sub-tree's keys
> 7) Some mechanism for key permissions: Determine whether a key is
>    readable or changeable , or not. And a way to change this as well.
>
> How do people feel about key permissions, and how would
> this tie into our security system ?

This is all 100% standard in the Linux kernel VFS, and more.
Doing security outside the kernel is prone to race conditions
and inconsistency.

You might as well start with an existing filesystem.
You can change later if performance becomes a problem.

Actually, there has been a perfectly servicable solution on
UNIX-like systems for many many years. The /etc directory
still works. There is no requirement that your /etc files
be a mess as some of them are; you may make a subdirectory.
The same goes for ~/.*rc files and directories.

Why reinvent the wheel?