request for handling of configuration files

[Heitzso <xxh1@cdc.gov>]

PLEASE, anyone coding a configuration tool that
creates or edits a standard configuration file 
that then has all of those
***** DON'T TOUCH THIS FILE *********
notices ......

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell the user/sysadmin
how _to_ add entries to that file.

I recently added a NIC and went into
/etc/network/interfaces
which is, according to O'Reilly Running
Debian Linux and Linux Network Administration
_the_right_place_to_make_changes
and I'm confronted with those "don't touch
this file" messages but not a clue as to
how I _should_ set up the new interface
the correct debian way.

The message did say, "this file configured
by etherconfig" or some such text but when
I tried to run 'etherconfig' it didn't exist.
There was a package etherconfig but no info
in /usr/share/doc/etherconfig in how to
reconfigure your interfaces.

Thanks for hearing out my rant ... the core
of which is to just add one more comment
line telling the poor frazzeled sysadmin
how the setup modification should be done.

Thanks,
Heitzso