Add $PWD/config/application.properties configuration in the distribution

[jbonofre]

In order to give a better "visibility" about Polaris configuration properties to end user, this PR add $PWD/config/application.properties to the Polaris server distribution.

@dennishuo it was my proposal when you said you are struggling to find "configuration".

[adutra]

FYI, an external application.properties file under $PWD/config is supported out of the box. This is the approach taken by the Helm chart (i.e. generate a configmap and mount it under $PWD/config/application.properties).

What is the use case for yet another external configuration file?

[jbonofre]

@adutra I was hesitating by using $PWD/config/application.properties, mostly for the non Quarkus users. But you are right, it's a better approach. I will update the PR according, updating gradle to "pre-populate" config/application.properties with polaris.conf content.

Thanks !

[adutra]

I think using the default external location is more prudent indeed, we don't need to get into the business of deciding what to do if two external files are present :-)

[jbonofre]

I think using the default external location is more prudent indeed, we don't need to get into the business of deciding what to do if two external files are present :-)

Yeah, agree. My bad 😄

[jbonofre]

@adutra I updated the PR according to your PR.

[adutra]

This file should not have been deleted, only reverted.

[jbonofre]

That's right, let me fix that.

[dimas-b]

I believe this file is loaded related to the current directory in runtime, not relative to the location of the jar... So it is fine to include it in the distribution, but I believe there may still be odd cases when users start Polaris from some arbitrary location and this file is not found.

[jbonofre]

Yeah. For now I deal only about distribution. Majority of users will user docker or distribution.

[jbonofre]

@dennishuo @eric-maynard @adutra @dimas-b what do you think about this PR ? Do you think it could be helpful for our users (to easily find and see all classic configuration properties) ?
If not, I'm happy to close this PR.

Thoughts ?

[eric-maynard]

I'm a bit confused -- quarkus/server/src/main/distribution/config/application.properties doesn't look like the same thing as $PWD to me. Does this really do what the description says?

this PR add $PWD/config/application.properties to the Polaris server distribution.

[eric-maynard]

Could we just allow for a top level (i.e. .../polaris/) config file which then gets copied to the requisite Quarkus location at build time?

[jbonofre]

@eric-maynard I like your idea of having a config.properties in the root folder that we copy at build time. That's actually even more a good way to provide "user visible".

Let me update this PR this way.

About $PWD, it's from a distribution perspective. I agree that could be confusing.

[dimas-b]

From my POV, I'd prefer educating users on how to benefit from the multitude of ways to configure Polaris (which come from the Quarkus infra). I believe it will be an advantage to all users in the long run, even though there is a learning curve.

I personally think that combining multiple config sources at build time will complicate the build unnecessarily. This looks similar to users (currently) having to provide extra build parameters for PostgreSQL, which makes every build different at the binary level.

Ideally, I think no rebuild should be necessary to switch between database backends or for any other runtime config changes (only a restart with different config values should do it).

A few properties that do require re-compilation are very low-level and changing them is something that normally needs a PR, IMHO :)

[jbonofre]

Fair enough, thanks everyone for your feedback.