[Asterisk-Users] Re: Asterisk crashes my router!?

[Joe Greco]

> | m0n0wall is a project aimed at creating a complete, embedded
> | firewall software package that, when used together with an embedded
> | PC, provides all the important features of commercial firewall boxes
> | (including ease of use) at a fraction of the price (free software).
> | 
> | m0n0wall is based on a bare-bones version of FreeBSD, along with a web
> | server, PHP and a few other utilities. The entire system configuration
> | is stored in one single XML text file to keep things transparent.
> | 
> | m0n0wall is probably the first UNIX system that has its boot-time
> | configuration done with PHP, rather than the usual shell scripts,
> | and that has the entire system configuration stored in XML format.
> 
> It's a firewall designed for embedded hardware, not a UNIX system.  It
> just happens to have a FreeBSD kernel at its core.  That's something
> else entirely.  In that context, the fact that the author has chosen
> to use PHP to tie everything together, instead of /bin/sh, and that he
> prefers XML for his configuration file format, is perfectly all right.
> 
> On the other hand, a *UNIX* system with its boot time configuration
> done with PHP, and its entire system configuration stored as a single
> XML file, would be something I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

As though using /bin/sh and dozens of files in varying formats in /etc,
/usr/local/etc, and elsewhere around the system makes any more sense.

Yeah.

I've been working in sh long enough to know that it has some significant
failings, and that there are advantages to going and doing "something
completely different."  I've written several system init applications in
C, for example, which has none of the advantages of instant editing that
all the /etc/rc scripts do, but also has none of the limitations imposed
by sh.

I'm also quite aware that it is difficult to do the equivalent of "copy
running-config backup-config" on a UNIX based system, which is something
people like to do on appliance class devices.  And there's no reason that
lots of applications can't be viewed as "appliance class" applications.

I'm certainly not arguing that mainline UNIX releases ought to go and dump
sh and move to XML, but saying that you wouldn't touch one that did is a
bit silly, because there are some clear advantages to be gained, once you
get past the learning curve.

My vote for worst-of-all-worlds:  configuration snapshots on an Ascend GRF
(UNIX based routing platform with dozens of /etc/* files controlling the
important stuff).

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.