this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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Programming

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Plugins and config file (self.programming)
submitted 4 months ago by grumpydeveloper to c/programming
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hi,

I'm asking for opinions and preferences.

There is no right or wrong.

Scenario:

I have a tool (server component, api only, no gui) that has a config file and no per-user adjustable things. The admin can change things, of course.

Now the tool gets plugins, where to configure them?

  1. All in one config file with plugins having a section for their things,
  2. plugins get their own config file.
  3. the main config points to a storage (database) with config options for everything, a kind of variant of 1.
  4. something else/better

Hoping for a civil discussion ;)

Cheers

Grumpy

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[–] Lodra 3 points 4 months ago

A complicated plugin ecosystem (e.g. Jenkins) makes for a terrible use experience. It’s annoying to configure a bunch of config files. Managing dependencies can be a complete nightmare. these problems also complicate your ci/cd.

So I’ll offer a slightly different answer. I prefer a single file instead of splitting up the config. And I’ll use OpenTelemetry as an excellent example of why. the plugins are compiled right into the app binary. This offers a ton of advantages, including a great reason to merge all of your app configs in a single file.

This really only works well if you have a good app though.