[lug] configuration management

[Daniel Webb]

I've been looking for a package to help with managing my many (10+) Linux
systems.  They are mostly similar, but of course each there are
differences with each one.  Some features I want:

  * I want to be able to see how all hosts are configured from any host.
  * I want to be able to make a change *once*, on *one* host, and have
    it propogate to other systems.
  * I want revision management
  * I want to be able to specify a "base" config file, then add "diff"
    files to express the small differences from host to host.  For
    example, my exim4 configuration might be the same except for a mailname.
  * I want to be able to see every change and propogate changes manually
    (sort of like unison will let you look at the diffs to see if it's
    what you want).
  * It must have a command-line interface available.

I looked for several hours on freshmeat and didn't see anything remotely
like what's I'm talking about.  I started to write something like this
in bash, which can cause a headache in a hurry.

Now I'm wondering if wrapper scripts around subversion branching
features would be the way to go?

I'd prefer it if someone else has already made something like what I'm
talking about, it seems like it would be a really common problem.

Daniel