linux already has a standard, which it inherited from unix: plain text.
structured text is good but there is always some edgecase that needs to be worked around. plain text is universal.
there are alno verification functionality in basically every core utility.
In abstract, I guess maybe there would be some benefit, but I've been using Linux for decades, and it really hasn't been an issue for me. I've definitely had times where configuring stuff is confusing, but it's not a function of the basic input format not being JSON or XML or TOML or YAML or whatever. I think that the only time that I recall tabs being obnoxious was not with config files, but with Makefiles (they do, in fact, require tabs).
The majority of software is packaged with an "example" config file, often with comments in place. Traditionally, software will also ship with a section 5 man page for its config files. So, for example:
$ man 5 fstab
Will describe the format for /etc/fstab.
EDIT: I think that the biggest hassle I recall was in configuring a sendmail mail server, quite some years back. The issue there wasn't the basic format, but the fact that due to organic growth, even basic configurations were enormous (just to get the sort of common configuration that most users wanted) and required quite a bit of reading through the option documentation. It was common to use a frontend to generate the config files, and a number of subsequent mail servers aimed at having their default, no-configuration-options state being closer to what people wanted, dramatically reducing the number of options that had to be specified.
Of course a challenge in the Linux ecosystem would be coordinating this change to happen widely and at once (which is important from a UX perspective). Since each of the aforementioned files belongs to a different project, and each project has its own maintainers that would need persuading (or rather inviting to the table to agree on a single format).
also ensuring backwards compatibility with everything released in the last 50 years that's still in use.
it'd make more sense to have a translation layer on top that generates configs for everything from a consistent language. you're never going to get buyin from enough projects to do it directly.
my system is entirely generated from nix files, 0 handwritten config files. it's json like if you squint, supports comments, but has functions and can be extended to whatever files you need to generate.
I do think there's alternatives in the area, but I don't think any of them are as complete
I see and feel what OP does. As a newbee to Linux (I guess, a lot in EU want to switch to Linux nowadays) it is really hard to learn which config file will how be used for which tool. As with the nature of Linux, that it has grown organically since years, plain text has been around since decades.
Are there any tools around to create config files easier? It is like programming without much knowledge and I guess a lot of "normal" users stick with Windows or Mac because of this.
As a newbee to Linux (I guess, a lot in EU want to switch to Linux nowadays) it is really hard to learn which config file will how be used for which tool.
Yep
Are there any tools around to create config files easier?
Hmm, I don't know what you mean by 'tools for creating config files'... If you don't want to have to type the syntax of config files manually then there are programs like DConf Editor, which in an ideal world all the system settings would fall under. But the files that I'm talking about are specifically those that haven't been moved to use DConf for whatever reason.
ok, I look into DConf. maybe this helps.
But I get it, that the most projects because of no or not much income, can’t jump onto this to improve their tools. Whereas I think usability is a big big feature for most people. Mostly better a low feature set easy to use instead of a big feature set which are not much people can use.
Try nix, its esentially JSON with functions
I recently tried out Ironbar because waybar just really annoys me and I was impressed with Ironbars config which was essentially "yeah...use whatever the hell you want."
Spoken like a true ignorant noob. JSON is hot fucking garbage. TOML is ok. Plaintext is GOAT.
By plaintext, do you mean a single value per file?
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