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On Fri, Jun 29, 2007 at 02:01:04AM +0200, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> Bill Stouder-Studenmund skrev:
> >On Thu, Jun 28, 2007 at 01:13:17PM -0500, Eric Haszlakiewicz wrote:
> >
> >It kinda depends on the nature of the file. Even now, if you added a
> >comment to the dhcp.leases file and got upset when it disappeared, I don=
't
> >think you'd get much sympathy. :-)
> >
> >In general, I don't think Unix has done well at preserving comments in=
=20
> >machine-rewritten files. So nothing new is happening here.
>=20
> Well, in one quick swoop, you've extended the "machine-rewritten" files=
=20
> from being a few oddball files that people usually don't care about=20
> editing at all normally, to just about every configuration file there=20
> is. That's a rather large change, and so I'd definitely say a lot of new=
=20
> things are happening.

When did I do that?

If we're talking about a file where the application internalizes the plist=
=20
(reads it in), does stuff, then externalizes the plist (writes it back=20
out), then we're talking a "machine-rewritten" file. If the tool just=20
internalizes the plist, then we aren't.

I have received no indication, either on this list or off it, that we=20
would take programs that currently just read configuration files and make=
=20
them start also writing them back out. That strikes me as a lot of=20
trouble for no real gain. Where there is a configuration that is=20
maintained by a program, like how the blue tooth stuff works, I think we=20
will let the program "own" the file. But this is something where it makes=
=20
a lot of sense.

> Don't get me wrong, I really like that the dhcp.leases file is both=20
> easily readable and writeable by humans. But I normally don't edit it,=20
> and I don't consider it being "owned" by a human.

Take care,

Bill

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