Other forms: configurations
A configuration is the set of settings that decide how a system behaves. The default configuration, change the configuration, a configuration file.
In computing it is everything a program needs to know that is not in the code, kept in files so it can change without rebuilding. Configuration drift is what happens when machines that should be identical are not, which is why configuration management exists as a discipline. Outside computing it means any arrangement of parts. Note configure; and config, the everyday clipping.
1nounconfigurationThe settings that decide how a system behaves.
“After the update, I had to change the configuration so the printer would work again.”
2nounarrangementAny arrangement of parts.
“The seats in the hall can be set out in several configurations, from rows to small circles.”
configuration is an arrangement of settings.
Latin configuratio comes from configurare, to shape after a pattern — con plus figura, a shape. Figure, effigy and fiction come from the same shaping.
Latin
cōnfigūrātiō
Middle French
configuration
English, today
configuration
From Middle French configuration, from Latin cōnfigūrātiō. Morphologically configure + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Computing & Code