Config file loading could be better

[kornypoet]

First, and foremost: When configliere loads a file, it does not decorate the hash with dotted accessors. This seems like an oversight and results in unexpected behavior.

Currently, you load configuration files like this:

Settings.read("/path/to/my/config")

What if I wanted to pass the config file as a command line argument to be read in?

./my_script.rb /path/to/my/config

This needs to be interpreted in the file by my own logic then:

Settings.use :commandline
Settings.resolve!
Settings.read(Settings.rest.first) # Settings.rest give you the the command line args (ARGV) passed in

This is more difficult to express than it should be. We could try including it as a param, but this is just as gross:

./my_script.rb --config_file=/path/to/my/config

And then in my script:

Settings.define :config_file
Settings.read(Settings.config_file)
Settings.resolve!

At least with this, the config is read in before the command line arguments are resolved, allowing for overrides.

I propose a special flag (--read_config=?) that is interpreted as "load this file by default", then proceed with other definitions, and params. This allows for command line overriding, while abstracting out a pattern that is needlessly verbose, and keeps everything conceptually related.