I have a clear understanding of what settings are; I can list them, inspect them, and the settings command has a clear explanation.

But the configuration command is unclear and I have trouble grasping exactly what it is about. Configuration info is not inspectable (except in raw format? with the export command) and some AREAs are unclear ("project"). There seems to be no page about Fossil "configuration".

I think it would be nice to have a page explaining what configurations are, their differences with settings, etc... not only mentions on pages about backups (and maybe other functionality).

Especially for someone like me trying to grasp the precise behavior of all the software I use, this configuration thing has been a bit of a challenge.

I am close to finally building a full mental model of Fossil, so I would be glad if someone could give me some more hints.

Thank you

For example, for the new command:

By default, all settings will be initialized to their default values.
This can be overridden using the --template parameter to specify a
repository file from which to copy the initial settings.  When a template
repository is used, almost all of the settings accessible from the setup
page, either directly or indirectly, will be copied.  Normal users and
their associated permissions will not be copied; however, the system
default users "anonymous", "nobody", "reader", "developer", and their
associated permissions will be copied.

Options:
   --template      FILE         Copy settings from repository file

How much does this have to do with configuration?

I have found that for example the settings in "Enable hyperlinks base on User-Agent and/or Javascript" of the /setup_access page are not copied by the fossil new --template option.

Does this have to do with the difference between settings and configuration? First I thought that yes it is but looking at the --template option help text & the source it appears that it should be copied by the db_initial_setup function.

Also, when I look closely there is this mention in the UI

(Properties: "auto-hyperlink", "auto-hyperlink-delay", and "auto-hyperlink-mouseover"")

But the auto-hyperlink "thing" is also listed as a setting (by the /setup_settings page and the settings command) so its quite confusing.

Wait, doing this

grep Setting\: *

shows that auto-hyperlink-mouseover is the only setting that is introduced with Setting: and not SETTING: so maybe this is a bug.

The mkindex does not seem to be case-insensitive.

Actually mkindex searches for ** SETTING so the many settings that start with /* SETTING or anything else are not indexed...

i was only able to find two such misformatted settings, but they're patched now.

Oh, my bad. Only two indeed.