BIND 10 #2755: the use of "list" structures for configuration considered harmful

[BIND 10 Development]

#2755: the use of "list" structures for configuration considered harmful
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
            Reporter:  cas           |                         Type:
              Status:  new           |  defect
           Milestone:  New Tasks     |                     Priority:
            Keywords:                |  medium
           Sensitive:  0             |                    Component:
         Sub-Project:  Core          |  Unclassified
Estimated Difficulty:  0             |                 CVSS Scoring:
         Total Hours:  0             |              Defect Severity:  N/A
                                     |  Feature Depending on Ticket:
                                     |          Add Hours to Ticket:  0
                                     |                    Internal?:  0
-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
 configuration lists are very hard to deal with in BIND 10.

 The index numbers change on additions and deletions, and the index number
 is not known in the beginning of a configuration session, it must first be
 looked up, which makes it impossible to change the values by scripting. In
 a large installation with thousands of zones, mapping zone configurations
 to index-numbers is very hard and error prone.

 using named sets would be simpler to use, it would allow to script
 configuration changes

 examples are
 data_sources/classes/CLASS[]
 Logging/loggers[]
 Auth/datasources[]
 Auth/listen_on[]
 ...

 it would be simpler to reference the configuration items as named sets:

 data_sources/classes/IN/sqlite3

 or

 Logging/loggers/boss-log/debuglevel

 or

 Auth/listen_on/192.0.2.53/port

 or

 Auth/datasources/memory/zones

 List structures work well for configuration items that have no structure
 themselves (such as a list of IP addresses in an ACL).

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://bind10.isc.org/ticket/2755>
BIND 10 Development <http://bind10.isc.org>
BIND 10 Development