doc: update mention of generating bitcoin.conf #30154

1. 
   epiccurious commented at 12:29 pm on May 22, 2024: contributor

   Closes #30153.

   This PR updates doc/init.md to mention generating an example bitcoin.conf instead of referencing the placeholder share/examples/bitcoin.conf. Also changes the code-formatted text to a markdown link.

   Background

   • Two years ago, share/examples/bitcoin.conf was replaced with a placeholder file. To see an example bitcoin.conf, the user now runs the contrib/devtools/gen-bitcoin-conf.sh script, which replaces the placeholder file with the parsed contents of bitcoind --help.

   • The instructions in init.md about an example bitcoin.conf haven’t changed significantly since they were added almost 10 years ago. They should be updated to improve clarity.

2. 
   DrahtBot commented at 12:29 pm on May 22, 2024: contributor

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   ACK	edilmedeiros, stickies-v, kevkevinpal, tdb3, achow101
   Concept ACK	BenWestgate

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3. DrahtBot added the label Docs on May 22, 2024
4. in share/examples/bitcoin.conf:1 in 42f788d071 outdated

   0@@ -1 +1 @@
   1-# This is a placeholder file. Please follow the instructions in `contrib/devtools/README.md` to generate a bitcoin.conf file.
   2+# This is a placeholder file. Please follow the instructions in the `gen-bitcoin-conf.sh` section of `contrib/devtools/README.md` to generate a bitcoin.conf file.
   

   ---

   ---

   

   edilmedeiros commented at 10:48 pm on May 22, 2024:

   I don’t like this change that much since this hardens the logical link between this file and contrib/devtools/README.md without any kind of automation to check if e.g. the section gen-bitcoin-conf.sh still exist.

   ---

   

   epiccurious commented at 11:36 am on May 23, 2024:

   Good point. My intention here is to reduce ambiguity by being more explicit to the user.

   One solution would be to add a check to ensure this section mentioned actually exists in the markdown, but it’s probably not worth the added code complexity for little benefit.

   Do you prefer to revert this change back?

   ---

   

   edilmedeiros commented at 12:49 pm on May 23, 2024:

   Yes.

   I don’t think adding a check just for a marginal document worth the maintenance burden.

   ---

   

   epiccurious commented at 8:07 pm on May 23, 2024:

   Agreed. Resolved with aef43a3a996618d581e0a16f7fc5e842708e83c9.
5. 
   edilmedeiros commented at 10:50 pm on May 22, 2024: contributor

   Good catch.

   I thought this would not make sense for people getting the binaries, but seems that none of the binary distributions include the doc folder. IIUIC, this change affects only people who is getting core from source. If so, the update does make sense.

6. 
   BenWestgate commented at 11:12 am on May 23, 2024: contributor

   Concept ACK
7. 
   epiccurious commented at 11:43 am on May 23, 2024: contributor

   IIUIC, this change affects only people who is getting core from source

   Correct as I understand it. Only impacts people using the source, not the binary distributions.

8. 
   kevkevinpal commented at 12:36 pm on May 23, 2024: contributor

   lgtm ACK 42f788d

   The share/examples/bitcoin.conf files links to contrib/devtools/README.md so instead of send the users to a file to link to another file it makes sense just to use that link directly here

9. epiccurious renamed this:
   doc: Update mentions of generating bitcoin.conf
   doc: update mentions of generating bitcoin.conf
   on May 23, 2024
10. epiccurious renamed this:
    doc: update mentions of generating bitcoin.conf
    doc: update mention of generating bitcoin.conf
    on May 23, 2024
11. 
    davidgumberg commented at 8:14 pm on May 23, 2024: contributor

    You should squash this into a single commit and update the PR description
12. Link to gen-bitcoin-conf.sh instead of bitcoin.conf placeholder 9013e2b97e
13. epiccurious force-pushed on May 23, 2024
14. 
    epiccurious commented at 11:16 pm on May 23, 2024: contributor

    squash this into a single commit and update the PR description

    Squashed into 9013e2b97e8f50d2be63ce740c42d0b0e0b9b7f2 and updated PR description.

15. 
    edilmedeiros commented at 0:59 am on May 24, 2024: contributor

    ACK 9013e2b97e8f50d2be63ce740c42d0b0e0b9b7f2
16. stickies-v approved
17. 
    stickies-v commented at 1:36 pm on May 24, 2024: contributor

    ACK 9013e2b97e8f50d2be63ce740c42d0b0e0b9b7f2

    meta nit: for trivial changes, discussion can happen on the PR directly, no need to open a separate issue first

18. 
    kevkevinpal commented at 1:37 pm on May 24, 2024: contributor

    reACK 9013e2b
19. 
    tdb3 commented at 2:21 pm on May 25, 2024: contributor

    ACK for 9013e2b97e8f50d2be63ce740c42d0b0e0b9b7f2 Good find. Makes sense to point the user to conf file generation (helping to ensure the conf reflects the implementation). Followed the link (seemed to work fine).
20. 
    achow101 commented at 11:00 pm on June 4, 2024: member

    ACK 9013e2b97e8f50d2be63ce740c42d0b0e0b9b7f2
21. achow101 merged this on Jun 4, 2024
22. achow101 closed this on Jun 4, 2024

    ---

23. bitcoin locked this on Jun 4, 2025

Contributors
epiccurious DrahtBot edilmedeiros BenWestgate kevkevinpal davidgumberg stickies-v tdb3 achow101

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