Default database.yml proposal

[sheerun]

# PostgreSQL. Versions 8.2 and up are supported.
#
# Install the pg driver:
#   gem install pg
# On OS X with Homebrew:
#   gem install pg -- --with-pg-config=/usr/local/bin/pg_config
#

default: &default
  adapter: postgresql
  encoding: unicode
  pool: 5
  username: <%= ENV['USER'] %>
  # min_messages: warning
  #   debug5, debug4, debug3, debug2, debug1,
  #   log, notice, warning, error, fatal, and panic

development:
  <<: *default
  database: <%= `echo $(basename $PWD)_development` %>

test:
  <<: *default
  database: <%= `echo $(basename $PWD)_test` %>

production:
  <<: *default
  database: <%= `echo $(basename $PWD)_production` %>

Defaults

• username is $USER, password is blank (it is default in homebrew installation)
• database is based on application directory name with appripriate suffix

  Reasoning

• Usually these values are default for development environment
• In production environment you replace database.yml anyway (both heroku and capistrano)
• Database names shoud be distinct between applications and environments, but the actual names doesn't really matter.
• It removes unnecessary step of database.yml setup when cloning app.
• Using these defaults you can finally add database.yml to repository and ommit database.yml.example file.

  Possible downsides

• You want to use different username / password / database names for development environment. I can't think of reason why though. If you really want to to this, you can use --assume-unchanged feature of Git.

[teamon]

• username can be blank - by default to current user will be used
• database name should be explicitly set (I don't want to break config when changing directory name)

[sheerun]

When was last time you've changed directory name, but didn't change db name?

[teamon]

prefix-repo -> repo

[sheerun]

wow