Why should I use Elektra?

The three main points relevant for most people are:

1. Even though Elektra provides a global keydatabase configuration files stay human read- and writable which allows us to integrate unmodified software.
2. Flexible adoption on how the configuration is accessed via plugins: you can run arbitrary code, e.g. do a git commit or log/notify when configuration files are changed.
3. Elektra allows you to specify configuration values:
   • use the value of other configuration values (symbolic links)
   • calculate the values based on other configuration values
   • validation configuration files
   • generate code based on it
   • and much more

Unique Features

Features that rarely can be found elsewhere (at least in this combination):

• Bootstrap code and proper abstraction is included:
  • you do not need to worry about the file names of configuration files in the application
  • cascading between /etc, $HOME, cwd and so on
  • you can change which Elektra path is connected to which configuration file with mounting
  • Portable across OS (Linux, BSD, w64, mac os x,.. ) and desktop systems (GNOME, KDE,...)
• No daemon, so no single point of failure but still having guarantees of consistent, validated files with good performance.
• Provides 3-way merging for configuration upgrades.

Further reasons

• Links and automatic calculation of values: unlike with other solutions you do not need to duplicate configuration values for different applications but you can comfortably link between them which makes many inconsistencies impossible.
• Allows us to easily create GUIs and web-UIs for the whole configuration on the system.
• Allows you to import/export all parts of the configuration.
• Syntax independence: you can consistently use your favourite syntax.
• Configuration Management (such as Puppet) can be used on top of it without having to fiddle with specifics of every configuration file.
• CLI-tool available
• kdb editor allows you to edit any path of Elektra with your favourite syntax (independent of the actual syntax of the configuration files that store values of this path).
• Allows us to also (integrate commandline arguments and environment)[/src/libs/getenv] into a consistent place for configuration.
• Reduces huge amount of code: Nearly every application has very similar code:
  • finding the correct configuration file (for different OS)
  • parsing configuration files
  • validating configuration files
  • replace configuration files on changes
• All advantages libraries have:
  • Performance: Improvements in the library benefits all applications.
  • The library only needs to be loaded once in the memory.
  • On fixes not all binaries of all applications need to be replaced.
• All advantages maintained code with a community has:
  • If something does not work, open an issue.
  • If you have a question, open an issue.
  • Regular releases.