Problem is right now waiverdb won't work without zero configuration. So we would need to fix that before we just drop this from the package entirely. :-)

So we should either change it to be installed into /usr/share/waiverdb/settings.py.example and then make sure we have a startup check to warn the user if they start up without a config -- or just keep /etc/waiverdb/settings.py as is and mark it %config(noreplace) and suppress the bytecode compilation for it.

I don't actually know what the best practice is for config files like this in openshift, but the second option sounds the most straightforward to me:

keep /etc/waiverdb/settings.py as is and mark it %config(noreplace) and suppress the bytecode compilation for it.

^^ that one.

+1 to keeping it and marking it as config.

For OpenShift, I think you'd manage this file as a ConfigMap, and it'd be mounted into /etc/waiverdb/ at runtime:
https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/3.5/dev_guide/configmaps.html

Right, in OpenShift you replace the whole /etc/waiverdb anyway so the settings.py that ships in the package is just mounted over and never seen.

So I actually think the right answer here is to ship this as an example settings in /usr/share/waiverdb/settings.py.example (and make sure it doesn't get byte compiled either).

+1 to ship this as an example settings in /usr/share/waiverdb/settings.py.example

Actually the settings.py.example file is already shipped in usr/share/doc/waiverdb/conf/settings.py.example. I think the only thing we need to do here is to add a warning
check if users start up wavierdb without a config.

Right now if you start it up (in production mode) without an /etc/waiverdb/settings.py file you get this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "runapp.py", line 19, in <module>
    app = create_app()
  File "/home/dcallagh/work/waiverdb/waiverdb/app.py", line 71, in create_app
    raise Warning("You need to change the app.secret_key value for production")
Warning: You need to change the app.secret_key value for production

but we should be more explicit about what exactly is missing.

I think actually all we need to do is remove the if os.path.exists(config_file): condition from the load_default_config function (which should actually be renamed load_config). Then the error is quite clear:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "runapp.py", line 19, in <module>
    app = create_app()
  File "/home/dcallagh/work/waiverdb/waiverdb/app.py", line 68, in create_app
    load_default_config(app)
  File "/home/dcallagh/work/waiverdb/waiverdb/app.py", line 38, in load_default_config
    app.config.from_pyfile(config_file)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flask/config.py", line 128, in from_pyfile
    with open(filename) as config_file:
IOError: [Errno 2] Unable to load configuration file (No such file or directory): '/etc/waiverdb/settings.py'

And then we just drop /etc/waiverdb/settings.py from the RPM.

This is now ready for anther look.

:+1:

:+1: here too.