# Dgraph Alpha Command Line Options Should Use Dotted Notation

**URL:** <https://discuss.dgraph.io/t/dgraph-alpha-command-line-options-should-use-dotted-notation/8918>\
**Category:** Dgraph\
**Tags:** kind:enhancement\
**Created:** [July 22, 2020, 4:16am UTC](https://discuss.dgraph.io/t/dgraph-alpha-command-line-options-should-use-dotted-notation/8918 "2020-07-22T04:16:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joaquin](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex007/user_avatar/discuss.dgraph.io/joaquin/32/2619_2.png) [@joaquin](https://discuss.dgraph.io/u/joaquin)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 4:16am UTC](https://discuss.dgraph.io/t/dgraph-alpha-command-line-options-should-use-dotted-notation/8918/1 "2020-07-22T04:16:31Z")

</div>

## Experience Report for Feature Request

Currently, command-line options are expressed both as `--parent_child` and `--parent.child`. I hope that they can later because of how they can be represented in configuration files (json, toml, yaml).

### What you wanted to do

I would like options to use the `--parent.child` for **`acl`** , **`graphql`** , **`vault`** , and **`tls`** similar to how `badger`, `jaeger`, `datadog` are configured.

#### happy-config.yaml

This way we can use a config.yaml with higher usability/readability:

```auto
vault:
  addr: http://vault.dgraph.devtest.io:8200
  field: enc_key
  format: base64
  path: secret/data/dgraph
  roleid_file: /dgraph/vault/roleid
  secretid_file: /dgraph/vault/secretid
tls:
  dir: /dgraph/tls
  client_auth: VERIFYIFGIVEN
  use_system_ca: true

```

#### happy-config.json

```json
{
   "vault": {
      "addr": "http://vault.dgraph.devtest.io:8200",
      "field": "enc_key",
      "format": "base64",
      "path": "secret/data/dgraph",
      "roleid_file": "/dgraph/vault/roleid",
      "secretid_file": "/dgraph/vault/secretid"
   },
   "tls": {
      "dir": "/dgraph/tls",
      "client_auth": "VERIFYIFGIVEN",
      "use_system_ca": true
   }
}

```

#### happy-config.toml

```auto
[vault]
addr = 'http://vault.dgraph.devtest.io:8200'
field = 'enc_key'
format = 'base64'
path = 'secret/data/dgraph'
roleid_file = '/dgraph/vault/roleid'
secretid_file = '/dgraph/vault/secretid'

[tls]
dir = '/dgraph/tls'
client_auth = 'VERIFYIFGIVEN'
use_system_ca = true

```

### What you actually did

For command-line options that following the `--parent_child` pattern, we cannot use categories or hierachies in configuration files or hierarchy as expressed supported by configuration languages.

### Why that wasn’t great, with examples

We have to use this instead below.

#### sad-config.yaml

```auto
vault_addr: http://vault.dgraph.devtest.io:8200
vault_field: enc_key
vault_format: base64
vault_path: secret/data/dgraph
vault_roleid_file: /dgraph/vault/roleid
vault_secretid_file: /dgraph/vault/secretid
tls_dir: /dgraph/tls
tls_client_auth: VERIFYIFGIVEN
tls_use_system_ca: true

```

#### sad-config.json

```auto
{
   "vault_addr": "http://vault.dgraph.devtest.io:8200",
   "vault_field": "enc_key",
   "vault_format": "base64",
   "vault_path": "secret/data/dgraph",
   "vault_roleid_file": "/dgraph/vault/roleid",
   "vault_secretid_file": "/dgraph/vault/secretid",
   "tls_dir": "/dgraph/tls",
   "tls_client_auth": "VERIFYIFGIVEN",
   "tls_use_system_ca": true
}

```

#### sad-config.toml

```auto
vault_addr = 'http://vault.dgraph.devtest.io:8200'
vault_field = 'enc_key'
vault_format = 'base64'
vault_path = 'secret/data/dgraph'
vault_roleid_file = '/dgraph/vault/roleid'
vault_secretid_file = '/dgraph/vault/secretid'
tls_dir = '/dgraph/tls'
tls_client_auth = 'VERIFYIFGIVEN'
tls_use_system_ca = true

```

### Any external references to support your case

The dgraph helm chart 0.0.8 will use configuration files going forward, so this would make it easier to maintain configurations going forward, so more people will be required to use configuration files for dgraph. Customers are already using hierarchical configurations with YAML where the option is available, such as `badger.compression_level`, `badger.tables`, and `badger.vlog` settings, expressed as:

```auto
badger:
  compression_level: 3
  tables: mmap
  badger.vlog

```

It would be great to do this with other options: **`acl`** , **`graphql`** , **`vault`** , and **`tls`**