Administrative Configuration Files
Configuration files are another mainstay of Linux administration. Almost everything you set up for
your particular computer??”user accounts, network addresses, or GUI preferences??”is stored in
plain-text files. This has some advantages and some disadvantages.
The advantage of plain-text files is that it??™s easy to read and change them. Any text editor will do.
The downside, however, is that as you edit configuration files, no error checking is going on. You
have to run the program that reads these files (such as a network daemon or the X desktop) to find
out whether you set up the files correctly. There are no standards for the structure of configuration
files, so you need to learn the format of each file individually. A comma or a quote in the wrong
place can sometimes cause a whole interface to fail.
Some software packages offer a command to test the sanity of the configuration file tied
to a package before you start a service. For example, the testparm command is used
with Samba to check the sanity of your smb.conf file. Other times, the daemon process providing a
service offers an option for checking your config file. For example, run httpd -t to check your
Apache Web server configuration before starting your Web server.
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