The Unified Configuration System


Welcome to TUCS - The Unified Configuration System

The purpose of TUCS is to streamline the configuration and administration of a Linux system. It does this by offering a standard way for storing and accessing configurations and settings, and tools for the users and administrator. The TUCS library is licensed under the LGPL, and the tools under the GPL.

Why?

Many people probably wonder why TUCS even exists. After all, there are already tools out there that configure linux systems such as linuxconf and COAS. While these are great tools and share similar goals with TUCS, they offer a solution by covering up the problem, instead of fixing it at the root. Linux, and all Unixes in general, are severely lacking in the standardization of system configuration. It takes lots and lots of training and reading to learn how to configure a Unix-like system, even if you have used another Linux/Unix system before. Most instructions for configuration are stored in man pages, which only tell you what you want if you already know what your looking for. It's a shame that the power, stability, and security of Linux/Unix is combined with a loosely governed, incredibly diverse, "every program for itself" configuration system. The goal of this project is not only to streamline configuration for newcomers, but to streamline it for experienced users and programs like linuxconf. If this system were to be adopted, programs like linuxconf wouldn't have to be so incredibly large and complicated. Also, the addition of new TUCS-compatible programs wouldn't require new training or new development for programs such as linuxconf.

The Plan

The plan for tucs is simple:
Step 1 - design a configuration method that is easy to parse, both by humans and computer, and is extensible enough to allow any software program to use it.
Step 2 - Implement a library that other programs can link to that allows these programs to use the configuration system.
Step 3 - Implement a tool that can allow users to browse and change the configuration, and which abstracts the configuration methods out to an X GUI and a console based interface.
Step 4 (the hardest) - Get other projects to use this configuration system.

Current Status

An initial release of the library is available for download. It also includes a very basic command-line utility.

Contributing

We could always use help. I am currenlty just one person, so help is welcome. If you post a message on the public forum on the TUCS project discussion forum.

Downloading

Released files are under the Download section of the project page.

Documentation

Documentation is available here.
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Last udate: 2001.9.8, adam.
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