
Templates for configuration files in Univention
Dieser Beitrag ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar: Vorlagen für Konfigurationsdateien in Univention
Those of you who know us will remember that we’re good friends with Univention. They offer a Linux distribution, enhanced by powerful and easy-to-use administrative tools, aiming directly at the heart of IT infrastructures: providing cross-platform domain services. I really dig that combination.
Those of you who know me a bit will also understand why. Linux is an open system. I can modify it. I can analyze its inner workings. Well alright, I can break it just as easily, but a system without any risk — where would be the fun in that?
But hold on for a moment — does that actually fit? „Standardized“, „easy to administer“, „flexible“ and „open“? Univention’s convinced: of course it does.
One of the cogs in the system bridging those requirements is Univention’s templating system for configuration files. That process combines template files with administrative settings and produces the actual configuration files. It is used for everything that’s managed centrally in Univention: web servers such as Apache, email servers like Dovecot and Postfix, services for Windows provided by Samba or CUPS.
And that’s what this post is all about: how does that mechanism work in the first place? First and foremost: how can I customize such managed configuration files — preferably without shooting myself in the foot? This is actually a regularly occurring question in Univention’s forum and the inspiration for digging deeper and writing this blog post.
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