samba 4: a new configuration system?

[Andrew Tridgell]

Raymond,

 > I hope not.  I realize I am "old school", and I fully realize
 > I am NOT a decision maker here, but dammit what's so bloody
 > wrong about flat text files that can be modified with "vi" or
 > *emacs*?  We don't need to turn Samba in *)&$^%& windows.

The decision on config file format hasn't been made yet, but perhaps
you can derive some comfort from knowing that the tool 'ldbedit' will
work if we do change to a ldb format. That tool works a bit like vipw,
in that it allows you to edit database records (or the entire database
if you like) in your favourite editor.

For example:

  export EDITOR=emacs
  ldbedit -H config.ldb

would edit the entire db in emacs. I deliberately designed ldb to be
command line friendly, so that we can have an indexable ldap-like
database that doesn't alienate people (like me) who like text files.

You can also use this against w2k3, for example:

  ldbedit -H ldap://win2003 -Uadministrator%password '(name=Administrator)'

would edit the administrators ldap record on the server win2003 using
ldap, launching your $EDITOR (or vi by default).

Similarly, if you wanted to change the description of all of your
users you could do:

  export LDB_URL=ldap://win2003
  ldbedit -Uuser%pass '(objectclass=user)' description

and you will see the description of all of your users. You can then
edit to your hearts content, and when you exit your editor ldbedit
will work out the ldif modifies that need to be applied, and apply
them.

Cheers, Tridge