Merge configuration files and clean up option paths

[kennytv]

This issue will be used to track the current progress and provide info on changes.

https://github.com/PaperMC/Paper/tree/feature/config-merge contains the work on merging and upgrading the config, with a small number of renames and removals already.

More details will be added once work on it picks up again.

[Keeg-Turner]

Quick question from a curious server admin: will the merger include server.properties?

[Andre601]

Quick question from a curious server admin: will the merger include server.properties?

I'm wondering this too.
I feel like merging the server.properties file into a single file with the other options - maybe under a server_properties section, depending on how everything would be structured - merged would be a good change.
That file simply feels... old and while the downside would be confusion from people who are used to a server.properties file, benefits would imo outweight it.

[NonSwag]

Quick question from a curious server admin: will the merger include server.properties?

I hope not and don't think so.
The server properties file is provided as is, by vanilla.
Changing anything about that would make it impossible to easily go from vanilla to paper or any other vanilla based server implementation, or vice versa.

[Zoriot]

I would find it useful. There could be an easy command to export it in the original format.
At the same time probably not worth the work

[Andre601]

I would find it useful. There could be an easy command to export it in the original format. At the same time probably not worth the work

Or it could remain unchanged (Maybe at most renamed to like server.properties.disabled to indicate it's unused) in the root, so that once you decide to switch - although why would one go from Paper to Vanilla tbh? - you can just rename the file and good is.

Tho, in the end is this something the Paper team would decide on, not us.

[Andre601]

Changing anything about that would make it impossible to easily go from vanilla to paper or any other vanilla based server implementation, or vice versa.

The vanilla -> paper change would be literally just "if server.properties present, copy over values" and not a major issue. A paper -> vanilla switch would be more difficult, but I rarely see anyone switching back to Vanilla. If you switched to Paper, you had a use for it (primarely plugins) that vanilla cannot provide.