Augeas - a configuration API

Augeas is a configuration editing tool. It parses configuration files in their native formats and transforms them into a tree. Configuration changes are made by manipulating this tree and saving it back into native config files.

Augeas is:

  • An API provided by a C library
  • A command line tool to manipulate configuration from the shell (and shell scripts)
  • Language bindings to do the same from your favorite scripting language
  • Canonical tree representations of common configuration files
  • A domain-specific language to describe configuration file formats

Augeas goals:

  • Manipulate configuration files safely, safer than the ad-hoc techniques generally used with grep, sed, awk and similar mechanisms in scripting languages
  • Provide a local configuration API for Linux
  • Make it easy to integrate new config files into the Augeas tree

Take the introductory tour to explore the current implementation in more detail.