Shoreline Firewall provides Linux systems with an effective iptables-based firewall solution.
What Shorewall does is read those configuration files and with the help of the iptables utility, Shorewall configures Netfilter to match your specific requirements. Not only can Shorewall be used on a dedicated firewall system, but also on a multi-function gateway/router/server or on a standalone GNU/Linux system.
Shorewall doesn't use Netfilter's ipchains compatibility mode, which means it can take full advantage of Netfilter's connection state tracking capabilities. And unlike other firewall tools out there, Shorewall is not a daemon. Once it has configured Netfilter, Shorewall's job is complete and there won't be any leftover "Shorewall process" running on your system.
Overall, Shorewall is a reliable and efficient tool for configuring Netfilter that doesn't take up additional resources on your system. If you're looking to configure your firewall requirements on a GNU/Linux system, Shorewall is definitely worth a try.
Version 4.4.0: N/A