Erik Sjölund wrote:
Just wanted to drop a note about a somewhat related project.
http://xml2hostconf.sourceforge.net ( GPL-licensed )
It is used to generate kickstart files for RedHat/Fedora. And it generates RPMs consisting of configuration files.
Autoyast have the Classes/Rules system. Xml2hostconf tries to solve the same problem with RPM dependencies and "kickstart-groups".
Some differences:
* autoyast is SUSE specific, xml2hostconf is RedHat/Fedora-specific ( I don't know if it is possible to modify xml2hostconf to generate some autoyast configuration )
it should be possible with an xslt stylesheet. Converting xml file A to B is very easy actually.
* xml2hostconf, is not only used for things at install time. When it generates configuration RPMs, already installed systems will also get them by way of yum or apt-get. This means you don't have to reinstall a system to get the new configuration files!
* xml2hostconf lacks the "Rules" functionality of autoyast. There is no such rule processing at install time. The configuration for each host is generated in advance.
* xml2hostconf lacks a gui.
* xml2hostconf lacks most of the "configuration and installation options" of autoyast ( http://www.suse.de/~nashif/autoinstallation/9.1/html/configuration.html ). xml2hostconf only handles what a kickstart file can do. The rest is left to the system administrator to put in post-install scripts and in generated configuration RPMs.
Comments?
Well, I just had a quick look, but... What xml2hostconf does is basically what you can get when you create a reference profile using the gui. Anas
cheers, Erik Sjölund