From 4e758a9f4a5041186fab60fa12d756aa18fdba27 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: muxator <a.mux@inwind.it>
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2019 00:34:00 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] settings: better explain that no default value is very
 different from ''

If environment variable PASSW is not defined, the following would be very
different:

  "password": "${PASSW}"  // would result in password === null
  "password": "${PASSW:}" // would result in password === ''

This characteristic will be used in the next commit, when we will use it to
discard a user if his password were null (and in turn use it for docker
containerization).

No functional changes.
---
 settings.json.template | 16 ++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/settings.json.template b/settings.json.template
index 9cdf2d3a7..27d605c98 100644
--- a/settings.json.template
+++ b/settings.json.template
@@ -22,13 +22,15 @@
  *
  * Would read the configuration values for those items from the environment
  * variables PORT, MINIFY and SKIN_NAME.
+ *
  * If PORT and SKIN_NAME variables were not defined, the default values 9001 and
- * "colibris" would be used. The configuration value "minify", on the other
- * hand, does not have a default indicated. Thus, if the environment variable
- * MINIFY were undefined, "minify" would be null (do not do this).
+ * "colibris" would be used.
+ * The configuration value "minify", on the other hand, does not have a
+ * designated default value. Thus, if the environment variable MINIFY were
+ * undefined, "minify" would be null.
  *
  * REMARKS:
- * Please note that variable substitution always needs to be quoted.
+ * 1) please note that variable substitution always needs to be quoted.
  *
  *    "port":     9001,            <-- Literal values. When not using
  *    "minify":   false                substitution, only strings must be
@@ -45,6 +47,12 @@
  *    "minify":   ${MINIFY}            around variable names are missing.
  *    "skinName": ${SKIN_NAME}
  *
+ * 2) Beware of undefined variables and default values: nulls and empty strings
+ *    are different!
+ *
+ *    "password": "${PASSW}"  // if PASSW is not defined would result in password === null
+ *    "password": "${PASSW:}" // if PASSW is not defined would result in password === ''
+ *
  */
 {
   /*