An Analysis of UNIX System Configuration
Rémy Evard · USENIX Large Installation Systems Administration Conference · 1997
Management of operating system configuration files files is an essential part of UNIX systems administration. It is particularly difficult in environments with a large number of computers. This paper presents a study of UNIX configuration file management. It compares existing systems and tools from the literature, presents several case studies of configuration file management in practice, examines one site in depth, and makes numerous observations on the configuration process.