James Yonan wrote:
I'm not sure that we really need a wrapper for unix, because most unix users will control OpenVPN by:(1) editing config files and starting from /etc/init.d, or (2) using some sort of GUI-based admin tool such as YaST and both of these methods are traditionally done as root.
You consider the typical openvpn user in a client scenario under unix as a command line freak - might be still true for the moment, but certainly not in the future. An increasing number of gui-oriented users are switching over to unix, in particular linux. And what would be better for a smooth switch-over than finding a similar gui on both platforms? Command line freaks already have anything the need with what openvpn now provides, so this is not the audience we should target.
...Yes, this will work. But I'm afraid - maybe I'm wrong - that the GUI will then have to be implemented quite differently on Windows and Unix. On Windows, we would open a socket and both send the commands over it and receive the status. On Unix, we would first start the process and then connect to a socket for status information (BTW, which socket would then be used when multiple instances of openvpn are running?).Should the unix GUI be written for generic X, or should we develop admin modules for specific distros such as YaST?I would go for the latter, because it will make the interface fit more seamlessly into a distribution's existing admin infrastructure.
I would not think about an admin gui at the moment. Maybe this will never be needed as configuration files are much easier to handle. I'm personally not looking for gui dialogs where I can select and combine graphically any option the openvpn service provides - in case this is the impression you got of my feature request. If SuSE, any other distributor, or projects like webmin are interested in providing some gui for creating the config file, let them do this. But we should first concentrate on an interface for *using* openvpn in daily work!
Jan
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