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WHY.md

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Why should I use Elektra?

The three main points relevant for most people are:

  1. Even though Elektra provides a global keydatabase configuration files stay human read- and writable which allows us to integrate unmodified software.
  2. Flexible adoption on how the configuration is accessed via plugins: you can run arbitrary code, e.g. do a git commit or log/notify when configuration files are changed.
  3. Elektra allows you to specify configuration values:
    • use the value of other configuration values (symbolic links)
    • calculate the values based on other configuration values
    • validation configuration files
    • generate code based on it
    • and much more

Unique Features

Features that rarely can be found elsewhere (at least in this combination):

  • Bootstrap code and proper abstraction is included:
    • you do not need to worry about the file names of configuration files in the application
    • cascading between /etc, $HOME, cwd and so on
    • you can change which Elektra path is connected to which configuration file with mounting
    • Portable across OS (Linux, BSD, w64, mac os x,.. ) and desktop systems (GNOME, KDE,...)
  • No daemon, so no single point of failure but still having guarantees of consistent, validated files with good performance.
  • Provides 3-way merging for configuration upgrades.

Further reasons

  • Links and automatic calculation of values: unlike with other solutions you do not need to duplicate configuration values for different applications but you can comfortably link between them which makes many inconsistencies impossible.
  • Allows us to easily create GUIs and web-UIs for the whole configuration on the system.
  • Allows you to import/export all parts of the configuration.
  • Syntax independence: you can consistently use your favourite syntax.
  • Configuration Management (such as Puppet) can be used on top of it without having to fiddle with specifics of every configuration file.
  • CLI-tool available
  • kdb editor allows you to edit any path of Elektra with your favourite syntax (independent of the actual syntax of the configuration files that store values of this path).
  • Allows us to also (integrate commandline arguments and environment)[/src/libs/getenv] into a consistent place for configuration.
  • Reduces huge amount of code: Nearly every application has very similar code:
    • finding the correct configuration file (for different OS)
    • parsing configuration files
    • validating configuration files
    • replace configuration files on changes
  • All advantages libraries have:
    • Performance: Improvements in the library benefits all applications.
    • The library only needs to be loaded once in the memory.
    • On fixes not all binaries of all applications need to be replaced.
  • All advantages maintained code with a community has:
    • If something does not work, open an issue.
    • If you have a question, open an issue.
    • Regular releases.