(Final?) krb5.Conf Lexer/Parser Proposal

[Theodore Ts'o]

On Fri, Jan 06, 2006 at 04:16:03PM -0500, Alexandra Ellwood wrote:
> Support folks for the Mac are already used to asking for the user's  
> config files in three different locations, and at least so far users  
> have been good about returning all the files.  And yes, several times  
> we've gotten more than one file back in an Apple bug report with a  
> user config file adding the realm that causes the failure and setting  
> default_realm to it.

Sounds like a useful thing to do would be to create a small tool which
takes all of the config files and integrates them all into an
"equivalent single config file", either for the user's edification or
for sending to support folks....  

I think that would solve the concerns about support.

> Obviously that's a contrived example.  My real point is that the  
> final signifier '*' syntax is difficult to see in a large config file  
> and difficult to figure out what it does.  If we decide we want to  
> preserve the final signifier mechanism I would argue we need a more  
> noticeable and self-descriptive syntax for it.  The current syntax is  
> more appropriate for a machine-generated config file with a GUI front- 
> end that displays what is going on in a clear and obvious manner.

Granted, it could be better.  Would something like this more fit the bill?

["top-level section] final
	ticket_lifetime = 36000

[realms]
	ATHENA.MIT.EDU = final {
		kdc = KERBEROS-2.MIT.EDU:88
		admin_server = KERBEROS-2.MIT.EDU
	}

					- Ted