[wildfly-dev] Creating config files for provisioned servers

[Stuart Douglas]

Hi All,

so I have been giving a bit of thought to how our configuration files 
are generated, and how it can work with feature packs. At the moment 
feature packs just package files with a subsystem list inside, and later 
feature packs configs override configs from their dependents.

I think we should move to an approach where feature packs build on the 
config provided by other feature packs. So the web feature pack config 
will basically express 'add these additional subsystems to 
standalone.xml'. Additional config files can also be created based of 
existing config, so for example standalone-full.xml would be represented 
as 'like standalone.xml, but with these additional subsystems'.

Domain mode would work in a similar manner, but with profiles instead of 
config files (so everything I am saying here about standalone.xml will 
also apply to domain mode).

There are quite a few advantages to this approach:

- As most (all?) configs will use standalone.xml as a base, it makes it 
simple to keep multiple config files in place
- It is easy for a feature pack to add a subsystem to all configurations 
(e.g. installing the KeyCloak feature pack could add KeyCloak to all 
configs).
- It is easy to create a new configuration that is the same as existing 
configs, but with an additional subsystem.

Does this sound reasonable?

Stuart