sysf in perl?

mp has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Before I reinvent the wheel, is there any tool (or module on which such a tool could be easily written) that has capabilities similar to sysf)?

Basically what sysf does is let you manage system files for multiple linux systems from a central repository, sharing files that are common and providing the ability to override files that differ. It supports some nice features such as the ability to diff the repository against the current configuration for a given machine, ability to archive current configuration, etc..

I've done some looking around on google and CPAN for something like this but have not found anything useful.

Comment on sysf in perl?

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Re: sysf in perl? by duff (Parson) on Jan 17, 2005 at 18:19 UTC
I'm probably missing something important in my quick glance at sysf, but I'd just use something like subversion to maintain a central repository of system configuration files. duff	[reply]
Re^2: sysf in perl? by mp (Deacon) on Jan 19, 2005 at 23:30 UTC
In managing a single machine, there would probably be no significant advantage to using something like sysf, but in managing a cluster of machines with some similarities and some differences in configuration, it can cut down on the total number of configuration files that must be managed, since default configurations or class-wide configuration files can be specified in addition to host-specific configuration files. Typically, I think it would be used in conjunction with a revision control system, like subversion or cvs, and would "push out" the correct configuration files for a particular host to the correct locations.	[reply]