configuratin guide: finished a pass to the "Rails General Configuration" section

1 files changed, 20 insertions, 26 deletions

diff --git a/railties/guides/source/configuring.textile b/railties/guides/source/configuring.textile
index 2958d1b053..fbe3d46367 100644
--- a/railties/guides/source/configuring.textile
+++ b/railties/guides/source/configuring.textile
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ config.asset_path = proc { |path| "/blog/public#{path}" }
 
 * +config.autoload_once_paths+ accepts an array of paths from which Rails will autoload constants that won't be wiped per request. Relevant if +config.cache_classes+ is false, which is the case in development mode by default. Otherwise, all autoloading happens only once. All elements of this array must also be in +autoload_paths+. Default is an empty array.
 
-* +config.autoload_paths+ accepts an array of paths from which Rails will autoload constants. By default that's the abolute paths of +app/mailers+, +app/assets+, +app/controllers+, +app/models+, and +app/helpers+. Please use <tt>+=</tt> to extend the default list.
+* +config.autoload_paths+ accepts an array of paths from which Rails will autoload constants. Default is all directories under +app+.
 
 * +config.cache_classes+ controls whether or not application classes and modules should be reloaded on each request. Defaults to true in development mode, and false in test and production modes. Can also be enabled with +threadsafe!+.
 
@@ -68,51 +68,43 @@ config.asset_path = proc { |path| "/blog/public#{path}" }
 
 * +config.cache_store+ configures which cache store to use for Rails caching. Options include one of the symbols +:memory_store+, +:file_store+, +:mem_cache_store+, or an object that implements the cache API. Defaults to +:file_store+ if the directory +tmp/cache+ exists, and to +:memory_store+ otherwise.
 
-* +config.colorize_logging+ specifies whether or not to use ANSI color codes when logging information. Defaults to _true_.
+* +config.colorize_logging+ specifies whether or not to use ANSI color codes when logging information. Defaults to true.
 
-* +config.consider_all_requests_local+ is generally set to +true+ during development and +false+ during production; if it is set to +true+, then any error will cause detailed debugging information to be dumped in the HTTP response. For finer-grained control, set this to +false+ and implement +local_request?+  in controllers to specify which requests should provide debugging information on errors.
+* +config.consider_all_requests_local+ is a flag. If true then any error will cause detailed debugging information to be dumped in the HTTP response, and the +Rails::Info+ controller will show the application runtime context in +/rails/info/properties+. True by default in development and test environments, and false in production mode. For finer-grained control, set this to false and implement +local_request?+ in controllers to specify which requests should provide debugging information on errors.
 
-* +config.controller_paths+ configures where Rails can find controllers for this application.
+* +config.dependency_loading+ is a flag that allows you to disable constant autoloading setting it to false. It only has effect if +config.cache_classes+ is true, which it is by default in production mode. This flag is set to false by +config.threadsafe!+.
 
-* +config.dependency_loading+ enables or disables dependency loading during the request cycle. Setting dependency_loading to _true_ will allow new classes to be loaded during a request and setting it to _false_ will disable this behavior. Can also be enabled with +threadsafe!+.
-
-* +config.eager_load_paths+ accepts an array of paths from which Rails will eager load on boot if cache classes is enabled. Defaults to every folder in the +app+ directory of the application. All elements of this array must also be in +load_paths+.
+* +config.eager_load_paths+ accepts an array of paths from which Rails will eager load on boot if cache classes is enabled. Defaults to every folder in the +app+ directory of the application.
 
 * +config.encoding+ sets up the application-wide encoding. Defaults to UTF-8.
 
 * +config.filter_parameters+ used for filtering out the parameters that you don't want shown in the logs, such as passwords or credit card numbers.
 
-* +config.force_ssl+ forcing all requests to be under HTTPS protocol by using +Rack::SSL+ middleware. This will secure your application from a session hijack attempt.
-
-* +config.helper_paths+ configures where Rails can find helpers for this application.
-
-* +config.log_level+ defines the verbosity of the Rails logger. In production mode, this defaults to +:info+. In development mode, it defaults to +:debug+.
+* +config.force_ssl+ forces all requests to be under HTTPS protocol by using +Rack::SSL+ middleware.
 
-* +config.log_path+ overrides the path to the log file to use. Defaults to +log/#{environment}.log+ (e.g. log/development.log or log/production.log).
+* +config.log_level+ defines the verbosity of the Rails logger. This option defaults to +:debug+ for all modes except production, where it defaults to +:info+.
 
-* +config.logger+ accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby 1.8+ Logger class, which is then used to log information from Action Controller. Set to nil to disable logging.
+* +config.logger+ accepts a logger conforming to the interface of Log4r or the default Ruby 1.8+ +Logger+ class. Defaults to an instance of +ActiveSupport::BufferedLogger+, with auto flushing off in production mode.
 
-* +config.middleware+ allows you to configure the application's middleware. This is covered in depth in the "Configuring Middleware" section below.
+* +config.middleware+ allows you to configure the application's middleware. This is covered in depth in the "Configuring Middleware":configuring-middleware section below.
 
-* +config.plugins+ accepts the list of plugins to load. If this is set to nil, all plugins will be loaded. If this is set to [], no plugins will be loaded. Otherwise, plugins will be loaded in the order specified.
+* +config.plugins+ accepts the list of plugins to load. If this is set to +nil+, default, all plugins will be loaded. If this is set to +[]+, no plugins will be loaded. Otherwise, plugins will be loaded in the order specified. This option let's you enforce some particular loading order, useful when dependencies between plugins require it. For that use case, put first the plugins you want to be loaded in a certain order, and then the special symbol +:all+ to have the rest loaded without the need to specify them.
 
-* +config.preload_frameworks+ enables or disables preloading all frameworks at startup. Can also be enabled with +threadsafe!+. Defaults to +nil+, so is disabled.
+* +config.preload_frameworks+ enables or disables preloading all frameworks at startup. Enabled by +config.threadsafe!+. Defaults to +nil+, so is disabled.
 
-* +config.reload_plugins+ enables or disables plugin reloading.
+* +config.reload_plugins+ enables or disables plugin reloading. Defaults to false.
 
-* +config.root+ configures the root path of the application.
+* +config.secret_token+ used for specifying a key which allows sessions for the application to be verified against a known secure key to prevent tampering. Applications get +config.secret_token+ initialized to a random key in +config/initializers/secret_token.rb+.
 
-* +config.secret_token+ used for specifying a key which allows sessions for the application to be verified against a known secure key to prevent tampering.
+* +config.serve_static_assets+ configures Rails to serve static assets. Defaults to true, but in the production environment is turned off. The server software used to run the application should be used to serve the assets instead.
 
-* +config.serve_static_assets+ configures Rails to serve static assets. Defaults to _true_, but in the production environment is turned off. The server software used to run the application should be used to serve the assets instead.
-
-* +config.session_store+ is usually set up in +config/initializers/session_store.rb+ and specifies what class to use to store the session. Custom session stores can be specified like so:
+* +config.session_store+ is usually set up in +config/initializers/session_store.rb+ and specifies what class to use to store the session. Possible values are +:cookie_store+, default, +:mem_cache_store+, and +:disabled+. The last one tells Rails not to deal with sessions. Custom session stores can also be specified like so:
 
 <ruby>
-  config.session_store = :my_custom_store
+config.session_store :my_custom_store
 </ruby>
 
-This custom store must be defined as +ActionDispatch::Session::MyCustomStore+.
+This custom store must be defined as +ActionDispatch::Session::MyCustomStore+. In addition to symbols, they can also be objects implementing a certain API, like +ActiveRecord::SessionStore+, in which case no special namespace is required.
 
 * +config.threadsafe!+ enables +allow_concurrency+, +cache_classes+, +dependency_loading+ and +preload_frameworks+ to make the application threadsafe.
 
@@ -120,7 +112,9 @@ WARNING: Threadsafe operation is incompatible with the normal workings of develo
 
 * +config.time_zone+ sets the default time zone for the application and enables time zone awareness for Active Record.
 
-* +config.whiny_nils+ enables or disables warnings when any methods of nil are invoked. Defaults to _true_ in development and test environments.
+* +config.whiny_nils+ enables or disables warnings when a certain set of methods are invoked on +nil+ and it does not respond to them. Defaults to true in development and test environments.
+
+* +config.assets.enabled+ a flag that controls whether the asset pipeline is enabled. It is explicitly initialized in +config/application.rb+.
 
 h4. Configuring Generators