Finally, there are a number of packages that were created for the express purpose of configuring individual services. There are software packages that provide graphic or command line configuration tools for any number of other software packages. The packages vary in complexity and usage, as they are usually provided by third parties. They can be found by using any of the search capable Debian package managers. Synaptic is probably the easiest as it allows one to easily browse descriptions after searching.
Many of the third-party utilities are not aware of modifications Debian makes to the configuration file layout in order to ease administration, upgrades, and stability. Often, they use the upstream configuration file layout, or sometimes even the author's idea of a better layout. Although the Debian package upgrade procedure will handle this as a local configuration file modification, it does make extra work for the administrator during upgrades. Keep this in mind when deciding whether to use third-party configuration utilities.
The next section will cover the preferred methods for local configuration in Debian.
