On 16 Aug 2011, at 02:20, Jason Smith wrote: > Is it possible to deprecate the .ini files as a configuration tool? In > other words, tell the world: "Configure CouchDB over HTTP via the > /_config URLs, probably via Futon."
I think this proposal reaches too far. Having the configuration in the ini files is good for a number of reasons. It allows you to configure CouchDB without actually running CouchDB. Following on from that, it allows you to rescue a CouchDB instance that is misbehaving, even if you are unable to access CouchDB. It lets sysadmins version the files, perform audits, as well as allowing them to easily integrate CouchDB within automatic deployment and configuration systems. If there are certain types of things that people regularly want to do via CouchDB itself, such as URL handlers, or users, then I see no reason why this stuff shouldn't be moved to CouchDB itself. But this type of thing should probably be handled on a case-by-case basis. Anything which relates to the CouchDB server in a more general sense, should stay in the system configuration files.
