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Excerpts from Mark McLoughlin's message of 2013-07-01 15:12:51 -0700:
> On Mon, 2013-07-01 at 14:52 -0700, Clint Byrum wrote:
> > Last week I went to use oslo.config in a utility I am writing called
> > os-collect-config[1]...
> > 
> > While running unit tests on the main() method that is used for the CLI,
> > I was surprised to find that my unit tests were picking up values from
> > a config file I had created just as a test. The tests can be fixed to
> > disable config file lookups, but what was more troublesome was that the
> > config file was overriding values I was passing in as sys.argv.
> > 
> > I have read the thread[2] which suggest that CLI should defer to config
> > file because config files are somehow less permanent than the CLI.
> > 
> > I am writing today to challenge that notion, and also to suggest that even
> > if that is the case, it is inappropriate to have oslo.config operate in
> > such a profoundly different manner than basically any other config library
> > or system software in general use. CLI options are _for config files_
> > and if packagers are shipping configurations in systemd unit files,
> > upstart jobs, or sysvinits, they are doing so to control the concerns
> > of that particular invocation of whatever command they are running,
> > and not to configure the software entirely.
> > 
> > CLI args are by definition ephemeral, even if somebody might make them
> > "permanent" in their system, I doubt any packager would then expect that
> > these CLI args would be overridden by any config files. This default is
> > just wrong, and needs to be fixed.
> 
> Have you seen this?
> 
>   https://review.openstack.org/#/c/29459/
> 

I had not, but this only provides a workaround, I think. If I read
it right, it means I have to specify --config-file to change the
precedence. So running:

'program --config-file /etc/program/program.conf --foo'

is different than

'program --foo --config-file /etc/program/program.conf'

Right?

This is a passable workaround, but it doesn't change the fact that
the default behavior is to read the config files last if they are not
specified on the command line.