EllisLab/CodeIgniter — pull request #1524 by webspy (2012-06-24 12:43:41+00:00)
Title: Added ability to override configurable settings from index.php

If CodeIgniter's index.php is added under version control then all configurable settings in this file will also be tracked (even if some are machine specific). Having the ability to set or override configurable settings in a separate (unversioned and machine specific) file would make it easier to keep CodeIgniter's files under version control.

When upgrading index.php to a newer version one would not need to worry about changes to that file. The separate configuration file might also allow for logic for switching between different environments, applications or CodeIgniter installations.

For backwards compatibility this configuration file is optional.