[platform-update-dev] Config files

[cisco@xxxxxxxxxx]

If we were to write a headless eclipse application to execute during a product install and invoke the install/update functions, we will also require a way to programatically set configuration information and write it to config file.  I don't know if such an interface was planned.  In general, we'll need a way to create a new configuration file during a product install, and we'll need a way to specify its location, or a way to retrieve its location.

On a multi-user system like Linux, we expect the correct way to work with a product configuration is to have a single config file in a read-only area of the disk that product launch scripts would pass during eclipse launch (such as /opt/eclipse/eclipse -configuration /etc/myproduct/config.xml).  This would allow a system admin person to keep a common configuration for a product, and product installs/additions/updates would be automatically inherited by all users when they next launch.  Does this sound correct?

If the above is correct, it would be useful to also allow users to be able to extend the default configuration by creating a local config file that inherits from the shared one.  I don't mean a simple copy of the file to their own home directory, but rather a way for a config file to reference another config file, then override/extend the content as personalization.  Is this a concept that the current design supports?  This would allow individual users to customize their settings without detaching themselves from the shared updates.

On a related point, if there is a shared config file in a read-only area, that means only an administrator could execute updates, right?  Will the inability for general users to write to this file cause any runtime errors or odd behaviour?

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|   Steve Francisco
|   cisco@xxxxxxxxxx
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