Merging local and global options

[Jürgen Weber <juergen jwi de>]

Hi,

Currently the user config replaces the global config, so the user
config has to contain everything instead of only the user adapted
values.

I think mc's configuration system should be changed so that
~/.config/mc/ and /etc/mc/ are merged with the first having
precedence.

if the user changes an option in the gui, mc would write the changed
option to the user config.

If the new option value is equal to the one in the (global+compiled
in) ini, then mc should remove the option from the user ini.
Old local copies of the global options would therefore be cleaned on saving.

Also, there should be a command line option to show the active (==
merged) options.

from the current 4.8.22 man page:
At  startup,  Midnight  Commander  tries  to  load  initialization
information from the ~/.config/mc/ini file.  If this file doesn't
exist,  the  system-wide  file  /etc/mc/mc.ini  is  used.  If  this
file  doesn't  exist,  the  system-wide   file /usr/share/mc/mc.ini is
used. If this file doesn't exist, MC uses the default settings.

after the change:
At  startup,  Midnight  Commander  loads initialization information
from the ~/.config/mc/ini file and the system-wide  file
/etc/mc/mc.ini. Options from the former override the system-wide
options. If an option is not found in either config file, MC uses the
default settings.


What do you think?

Greetings,
Juergen