Pan (programming language)

The pan configuration language allows the definition of machine configuration information and an associated schema with a simple, human-accessible syntax. A pan language compiler transforms the configuration information contained within a set of pan templates to a machine-friendly XML format.

The pan language is used within the Quattor toolkit to define the desired configuration for one or more machines. The language is primarily a declarative language where elements in a hierarchical tree are set to particular values. The pan syntax is human-friendly and fairly simple, yet allows system administrators to simultaneously set configuration values, define an overall configuration schema, and validate the final configuration against the schema.