Network configuration is handled differently on each distribution. Many configuration systems are aging and lagging behind in their ability to handle the complex scenarios that come into play with advances in network technology.

It is the intent of netconf to address these new complexities using a well-designed and robust approach to network configuration management. Netconf will provide a bi-directional control interface which will allow interaction with the network configuration as needed. This interface will establish a source and destination for events for various network-related processes. Bringing up an interface, for example, will involve sending a message to netconf, and netconf will do the heavy lifting involved in making this happen. A policy system will allow netconf to react to changes in network status and perform necessary defined operations without getting in the user's way. Future user-friendly GUI applications will be able to utilize netconf to perform complex network tasks without ugly hacks, and power users will be able to interact with netconf without it getting in their way.

Project page:
http://netconf.alioth.debian.org

Git repository:
http://git.debian.org/?p=netconf/netconf.git;a=summary