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However, the topic of this proposal are the tasks 2. and 3., and as shown below, they can be tackled in a generic way and in one place.

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Proposal

We propose to solve the problem of the current↔intended state reconciliation generically using a dependency graph. Every configuration primitive (rendered from the task 1.) can be represented by a single graph node. Dependencies between items are modeled using directed edges. For the start, we will need to support dependency with the semantics "must exist". For example, if a route depends on a particular network interface to be configured first, there would be an edge originating at the route's graph node and pointing to the node of the network interface. A visual example with a dependency graph representing network configuration is shown below:

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