moving the config into the database [was: Re: [PATCH] Display extra headers for emacs-mua - db config option]

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On Sun 2019-12-08 15:19:38 -0300, Jorge P. de Morais Neto wrote:
> Em [2019-12-08 dom 09:12:55-0800], Jameson Graef Rollins escreveu:
>
>> You can already use 'notmuch config list' to dump every configuration
>> item to stdout.  Would that be sufficient for personal synchronization
>> purposes.
>
> But then I would have to remember invoking
> ~notmuch config list > ~/notmuch-config~
> every time I changed Notmuch configuration.  It would be more convenient
> and less error-prone for Notmuch to keep a perennial text file
> reflecting the configuration in the database.  Oh, I that file should be
> updated not only by ~notmuch edit config~, but also by ~notmuch config
> set~.

One problem with such a "perennial text file" is that people will want
to edit it.  When they do, what should happen?

So the proposal to maintain such a file seems like we would be adding an
interface to notmuch that will not be used by many people, and will
eventually hurt (or at least confuse) users in surprising ways.

I'd rather keep notmuch itself simpler, and expect users who are syncing
to sync things like the output of "notmuch dump" (which already includes
all db-stored config).

    --dkg
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