[erlang-questions] How to solve the issue with Configuration files?

[Mazen Harake]

Dear List,

During the countless times I've done releasehandling I always end up 
thinking about the problem with how to "ship" configuration.

Option1:
All configuration files are specific for each application and reside in 
e.g. priv directory. Benefit is that it then gets included when packing 
a release however it won't survive a release upgrade unless the files 
are explicitly copied to the new location.

Option2:
An env variable which tells where a configuration folder is and that is 
used in your application (or if you don't care about dependencies, heh, 
then a lib which provides that directory or similar). Then each 
application use their own files in that dir. Benefit here is that 
configuration survives release change but doesn't get packed with the 
release. Also this is a b**h to handle, anyone that version control 
their configuration will have a nightmare if you want to manually handle 
the configuration.

So the question is; what is the best way to handle configurations? Say 
you have 20 xml files which various applications in your release use... 
where to put them and how to maintain them? If you can, please share how 
you handle them...

/Mazen