bionic (3) doc_GOALS_md.3elektra.gz

NAME

       doc_GOALS_mdGoals
        -

       • improve robustness of configuration systems

         • reject invalid configuration

         • avoid common programming errors by using better bindings

       • allow software to be better integrated on configuration level

       • postpone some decisions from programmers to maintainers/administrators:

         • syntax of the configuration files

         • side effects (e.g. logging, vcs commit, notifications)

         • flexible adoption to specific needs

         • adoption of standards (xdg, xml, json)

       • reduce duplication of code (a single parser/generator used by everyone accessing a specific part of
         configuration)

   Target
       • Embedded: Elektra is on the frontier for embedded systems because of its tiny core and the many
         possibilities with it`s plugins.

       • Server: Elektra is ideal suited for a local configuration storage by mounting existing configuration
         files into the global tree. Nodes using Elektra can be connected by already existing configuration
         management tools.

       • Desktop: Elektra allows applications to read and write from a global configuration tree. Missing is a
         description (schema) so that these values actually can be shared.

   Quality Goals
       1.) Simplicity

       An overly complex system cannot be managed nor understood. Extensibility brings some complex issues,
       which need to be solved - but in a way so that the user sees either nothing of it or only needs to
       understand very simple concepts so that it works flawlessly. Special care for simplicity is taken for the
       users:

       • Endusers when reconfiguring or upgrading should never take any notice of Elektra, except that it works
         more robust, better integrated and with less problems.

       • Programmers should have multiple ways to take advantage of Elektra so that it flawlessly integrate with
         their system.

       • Plugin Programmers: it should be simple to extend Elektra in any desired way.

       • Application`s Maintainers to correctly setup+upgrade KDB

       • Administrators that want to change the maintainers setup according to their needs

       2.) Robustness

       Configuration Systems today suffer badly from:

       • weak input validation

       • faulty transformations from strings to other types

       • no error messages

       • undefined behaviour

       We want to tackle this problem.

       3.) Extensibility

       There are so many variants of

       • storage formats

       • frontend integrations

       • bindings

       Nearly every aspect of Elektra must be extremely extensible. On the other side semantics must be very
       clear and well defined so that this extensible system works reproducible and predictable.

       Only key/value pairs are the common factor and a way to get and set them, everything else is an
       extension.

       4.) Performance

       Configuration is the main impact for bootup and startup time. Elektra needs to be similar fast then
       current solutions. Ideally it should get faster because of centralized optimization endeavours where
       everyone using Elektra can benefit from.

       Only pay for what you need.