David Thomas

“Why can’t you change it?”

Tools amplify your talent. The better your tools, and the better you know how to use them, the more productive you can be.

Plain text is also easier to search. If you can't remember which configuration file manages your system backups, a quick grep -r backup /etc should tell you.

For instance, suppose you have a production deployment of a large application with a complex site-specific configuration file. If this file is in plain text, you could place it under a version control system (see Topic 19, ), so that you automatically keep a history of all changes. File comparison tools such as diff and fc allow you to see at a glance what changes have been made, while sum allows you to generate a checksum to monitor the file for accidental (or malicious) modification.