diff --git a/packages/base/all/vendor-config-onl/src/python/onl/install/ConfUtils.py b/packages/base/all/vendor-config-onl/src/python/onl/install/ConfUtils.py
index b81fd347..4f2a831c 100644
--- a/packages/base/all/vendor-config-onl/src/python/onl/install/ConfUtils.py
+++ b/packages/base/all/vendor-config-onl/src/python/onl/install/ConfUtils.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import os
 import logging
 import subprocess
 from InstallUtils import SubprocessMixin, ChrootSubprocessMixin, MountContext
+from cStringIO import StringIO
 
 class ConfBase:
 
@@ -45,6 +46,14 @@ class ConfBase:
     def __setattr__(self, attr, val):
         self.__dict__['_data'][attr] = val
 
+    def dumps(self):
+        """Generate a serialized representation."""
+        buf = StringIO()
+        data = self.__dict__.get('_data', {})
+        for key, val in data.iteritems():
+            buf.write("%s=\"%s\"\n" % (key, val,))
+        return buf.getvalue()
+
 class ConfFileBase(ConfBase):
 
     PATH = None