LinuxConfigurationConsole

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Summary

This spec describes a high level design for a Linux Configuration Console for customized administrative consoles.

Rationale

Custom Linux Configuration Consoles (LCC) would allow users to quickly access their common administrative tasks. Further, a standard API for these configuration consoles would allow them to be shared between LCC interfaces for Qt, GTK, or Curses.

Use cases

Scope

Design

  • The LCC will itself do nothing; modules will be used to add functionality such as users and groups control, security policy management, or package management.
  • Modules will run in a separate process, communicating with the LCC over IPC such as pipes to isolate their security contexts and allow fault-tolerance in case one module crashes.
    • The LCC will use a robust communication protocol. It is possible for any array of messages to be easily organized and combined, allowing multiple modules to be combined into one or even proxied through another.
    • Administrative modules will run under a second instance of LCC proxying their requests. This instance will be run by gksu with root privileges.

  • Modules will pass their user interfaces as XML documents describing options to be implemented and possible values. The actual LCC process will decide how to draw these using the appropriate toolkit
  • Individual configuration applets would load the LCC with only one module, in a mode where the list of modules isn't displayed. The interface would be pared down from a full console to just what is needed to do the job of the module.

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

Unresolved issues

BoF agenda and discussion


CategorySpec

LinuxConfigurationConsole (last edited 2008-08-06 16:36:29 by localhost)