yep, on a daily basis. I also handle php.ini, java properties files and a slew of others. (Including the ever loving satan spawn of sendmail.cf).

All of which are simple key value pairs. Apache (and a few others) introduce scoping with psuedo XML, but again, it's not complex logic.

I brought up m4 because that was the last time someone tried to solve the configuration problem with a "simple and easy" macro language. Yeah, that worked great.

Layering Lua (or any language) as your configuration option will not simplify things. In fact, I'm willing to say that it will make it much, much harder as folks suddenly become increasingly "clever" about how they construct those config files.

I want my config files stupid. I want them heavily documented so that when I (or someone else) next has to manage them two years from now after working on multiple other projects in various languages and systems, they don't have to spend a week trying to remember what the hell this is doing, deciphering cryptic compile time errors, or wondering what the complex state machine construct someone layered on top of port allocations is supposed to be doing.

clearly you've never ran any big site (yahoo, netflix, unitedheroes, etc) where complex configs are required.

I don't see how that's clear at all. And which of those three do you work at, btw?

heh. I used to work at Yahoo, I currently work at Netflix, and my personal site is unitedheroes.net.

I also know chad and he's being a dork. (hey, i appreciate a well crafted troll.)