From owner-freebsd-arch Tue Feb 11 22:40:48 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 395CB37B401 for ; Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:40:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp-relay.omnis.com (smtp-relay.omnis.com [216.239.128.27]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 931DC43F3F for ; Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:40:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Received: from softweyr.homeunix.net (66-75-151-22.san.rr.com [66.75.151.22]) by smtp-relay.omnis.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6269B43581; Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:32:37 -0800 (PST) From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr To: Garrett Wollman Subject: Re: syslog.conf syntax change (multiple program/host specifications) Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 06:32:36 +0000 User-Agent: KMail/1.5 Cc: arch@FreeBSD.org References: <20030210114930.GB90800@melusine.cuivre.fr.eu.org> <200302112310.h1BNAUBS019097@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <200302112310.h1BNAUBS019097@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200302120632.36583.wes@softweyr.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Tuesday 11 February 2003 23:10, Garrett Wollman wrote: > In article <200302111430.03156.wes@softweyr.com> you write: > >Excellent. I have another simple change to syslog I want to cast before > > the audience for consideration. > > I have had near the bottom of the CFT pile for some time now a project > to do the following (which your example is just crying out for): > > 1) Integrate syslogd and newsyslog. > 2) Replace syslog.conf and newsyslog.conf with a new configuration file > that contains complete descriptions of log sources and destinations. > > As a part of (2) I have been thinking at very low priority about how > to represent the new configuration file, and I've come to the > conclusion that XML is probably the best answer. There was a time I would have agreed with you, but that time has passed. SGML-ish languages have such tortured syntax and are such an abomination on the eyes they should never be exposed to human eyes. I'd much prefer to develop a simple yacc-able grammar and develope the configuration parser that way, or use a key=value configuration, so human beings can understand the configuration with a program to help them. XML is the ultimate Least Common Denominator; it's the best tool for every job, except you can come up with a better tool for any job. -- Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket? Wes Peters wes@softweyr.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message