Working with file system based configuration

Note that by default, Drupal stores configuration management data in the database. To enable a file-based workflow, you must modify both settings.php and services.yml.

This must be done before installing Drupal, as switching back to database-based configuration after enabling file-based storage is complex. If you need to enable configuration in files after site installation, you must first export your configuration and save a copy in the active config directory before enabling file-based config management.

Note: You must have separate active and staging directories (as shown below)—the configuration import step is still required even with a file-based workflow. See this issue: the file system-based workflow doesn't correctly install/uninstall modules without the configuration import step.

1. Open settings.php and locate the “Active configuration settings” section.

2. Uncomment the line starting with $settings['bootstrap_config_storage'] to enable file storage for configuration.
Ensure the line reads:

$settings['bootstrap_config_storage'] = array('Drupal\Core\Config\BootstrapConfigStorageFactory::class', 'getFileStorage');

3. Add the following code to settings.php (adapted from this Drupal.org comment):

$config_directories[CONFIG_ACTIVE_DIRECTORY] = 'PATH_OUTSIDE_WEB_ROOT/config/active/';
$config_directories[CONFIG_STAGING_DIRECTORY] = 'PATH_OUTSIDE_WEB_ROOT/config/staging/';

Save the file.

4. Open the services.yml file in sites/default and add the following code (from this Drupal.org comment):

services:
  config.storage:
    class: Drupal\Core\Config\CachedStorage
    arguments: ['@config.storage.active', '@cache.config']
  config.storage.active:
    class: Drupal\Core\Config\FileStorage
    factory: Drupal\Core\Config\FileStorageFactory::getActive

5. Copy the configuration files (.yml) from the active folder of the source site to its staging folder.

6. Use a tool like rsync, git, ftp, or scp to copy the contents of the source staging folder to the destination staging folder.

7. On the target website, go to /admin/config/development/configuration.

8. Click Import All.