Best Practice for Configuration File (Put all options or overriden value only)? plus some questions

[LazyGeniusMan]

Which one is generally better?

1. Put all options in the config file even if I don't make change to it (using default value from the docs/example)
2. Only add things that I want to override (e.g. adding auth and archive path since it's null by default)

what's pros and cons of those two methods? or there's another way to use config file?

I also have some questions.

3. I notice by default archive is stored in {category}{id} format. Does that mean even if I change folder structure and rename files it will be detected as downloaded since it only checking the id and not the folder structure and filename format?
4. If I use archive-format that include a metadata that's can be changed (e.g. username), will that be a problem for detecting downloaded files when the metadata is changed?

[Hrxn]

If you don't need or don't plan on making any changes to specific config options somewhat regularly, then I see no point in putting them into your config file, just using the default setting values is definitely simpler..

And shorter! Trust me, if you've used just a dozen or so of the supported sites, including subcategories, and use custom values for directory, filename, and maybe the archive format and file, your config file will grow big enough already.

So, in my opinion, only use the basic options, and the path and filename options etc. in your config that you actually need, as well as those options where you want to make quick changes on a case by case basis.

There's not another way of using config files, but you can obviously specify different config files from the command line, which can be useful for automation, like when calling gallery-dl from a script or something.

Does that mean even if I change folder structure and rename files it will be detected as downloaded since it only checking the id and not the folder structure and filename format?

Exactly. That is the primary purpose of using the archive file functionality in the first place.

If I use archive-format that include a metadata that's can be changed (e.g. username), will that be a problem for detecting downloaded files when the metadata is changed?

Well, depends on the site. But you usually don't want anything that can be changed or even does change on a regular interval in your archive file. It's not a general purpose store for metadata, if that's your question.