[CLUG] IP Tables Front End Project

[adam beecher]

> I did. Cool, thanks.
> 
One more on the evening then? I have to say I enjoyed the last time, lot
more people than usual, even if some of them weren't fully qualified geeks.
And a girl! Who was expecting that?! (Although she did go on about her
boyfriend quite a lot.)

No shouting for the head of Joe Gavin next time. I promise.

> I've obviously misunderstood: is the data secret, or do we 
> just not want it editable? Permissions are usually much more 
> easily fixed than database tables.
> 
You have a point, since the iptables script will need to be written anyway.
However we can do relations with MySQL, which is mess with flatfiles.
Cross-referencing ports with descriptions can be done with a JOIN, for
example.

> I've also been assuming that this gizmo *will* [be able to] 
> write an iptables shell script, so that the final settings 
> can be exported for replication on dozens of machines...
> 
That's what we're looking at yeah. But writing a shell script is a hell of a
lot easier than reading one in and parsing it. Sure, they're not that
complex, but it strikes me that it'd be easier to just store the data in
nice pretty fields in a table. :)

> I'm easy...so long as it works :-)
> 
Oh you want it to WORK now!? Huh!

adam