I have a couple of seriously old installations of NR on machines (RPi's) that were "not broken, not fixed" but are being re-purposed and need a software refresh. Before jumping in, I would like suggestions on how best to keep the customizations I have made to the settings.js file while managing "new" features like projects and persistent context. (NR has come a long way since version 0.18.7) The question is independent of a decision about the OS, since even a completely fresh installation leaves me with the need to merge two versions of the settings file. Any thoughts?
Thankfully, there aren't many changes to settings.js that matter if they are missing so using an old version is often not an issue.
Personally there are two things I do.
Firstly, whenever there is a new version of Node-RED, I use VScode to compare the new version of the master file with my custom version to see if anything has materially changed. If it has, then I update my copy accordingly. I do this on my dev machine first and then update other instances.
Unfortunately, this is all manual.
Secondly, if making more complex changes to settings.js, I will tend to use an external module file that is require'd into settings.js so that I keep the custom code seperate.
This is certainly an area of Node-RED that would benefit from some re-engineering when time permits. I know that Nick wants to look at this file.
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Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
Pro: this makes it possible for the update script to preserve the old file without doing damage.
Con: to enable projects and persistent context requires changes if the files are as old as mine.
I've done this in order to use the same settings file on multiple systems that need (for example) different values of global variables or the credentialSecret. The only down side is handling the error if the external module is not found.
Yup, those'll be the things changed most though there have been a few others as well. Actually, I've not helped myself because I've extensively reworked the settings.js on my new installation to meet modern JavaScript standards, JSDoc and the like. I've offered that back to Nick & Dave and Nick will be taking a more detailed look at what they might want to adopt for future versions of NR.
Well that is easily handled with a try/catch wrapper I think?
In case you are interested, here is what I presented to Nick & Dave. Clearly there are some things that are specific to my way of working but hopefully others will be adopted. I think that the JSDoc type comments and indentation are helpful to anyone using a JavaScript IDE or smart editor.
There is more use of environment variables and less use of the nol user in example settings 
/**
* Copyright JS Foundation and other contributors, http://js.foundation
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
**/
const fs = require('fs') // The `https` setting requires the `fs` module (core Node.js)
const path = require('path') // OS indipendent path library (core Node.js)
/** Save a PID file so that Node-RED can be easily restarted even when run manually */
const pid = process.pid; process.env.node_red_pid = pid+''
console.info('PID: ', pid)
fs.readdir('.', (err, files)=>{
if (err) throw err
for (var i = 0, len = files.length; i < len; i++) {
var match = files[i].match(/.*\.pid/)
if(match !== null) fs.unlink(match[0], (err) => {
if (err) throw err
})
}
fs.writeFile(`${pid}.pid`, pid, (err) => {
if (err) throw err
})
})
// Optionally display the Node.js/v8 engine heap size on startup
// const v8 = require('v8');
// console.info(`V8 Total Heap Size: ${(v8.getHeapStatistics().total_available_size / 1024 / 1024).toFixed(2)} MB`)
module.exports = {
// the tcp port that the Node-RED web server is listening on
uiPort: process.env.PORT || 1880,
/* By default, the Node-RED UI accepts connections on all IPv4 interfaces.
* To listen on all IPv6 addresses, set uiHost to "::",
* The following property can be used to listen on a specific interface. For
* example, the following would only allow connections from the local machine.
* This can be useful security when putting NR behind a reverse proxy on the same device.
*/
//uiHost: "127.0.0.1",
// Retry time in milliseconds for MQTT connections
mqttReconnectTime: 15000,
// Retry time in milliseconds for Serial port connections
serialReconnectTime: 15000,
// Retry time in milliseconds for TCP socket connections
//socketReconnectTime: 10000,
// Timeout in milliseconds for TCP server socket connections - defaults to no timeout
//socketTimeout: 120000,
// Maximum number of messages to wait in queue while attempting to connect to TCP socket - defaults to 1000
//tcpMsgQueueSize: 2000,
// Timeout in milliseconds for HTTP request connections - defaults to 120 seconds
//httpRequestTimeout: 120000,
// The maximum length, in characters, of any message sent to the debug sidebar tab
debugMaxLength: 1000,
/* The maximum number of messages nodes will buffer internally as part of their
* operation. This applies across a range of nodes that operate on message sequences.
* defaults to no limit. A value of 0 also means no limit is applied.
*/
//nodeMessageBufferMaxLength: 0,
/* To disable the option for using local files for storing keys and certificates in the TLS configuration
* node, set this to true
*/
//tlsConfigDisableLocalFiles: true,
// Colourise the console output of the debug node
//debugUseColors: true,
// The file containing the flows. If not set, it defaults to flows_<hostname>.json
//flowFile: 'flows.json',
/* To enabled pretty-printing of the flow within the flow file, set the following
* property to true:
*/
//flowFilePretty: true,
/* By default, credentials are encrypted in storage using a generated key. To
* specify your own secret, set the following property.
* If you want to disable encryption of credentials, set this property to false.
* Note: once you set this property, do not change it - doing so will prevent
* node-red from being able to decrypt your existing credentials and they will be
* lost.
*/
//credentialSecret: 'a-secret-key',
/* By default, all user data is stored in a directory called `.node-red` under
* the user's home directory. To use a different location, the following
* property can be used
* JK: Setting via startup command
*/
//userDir: path.join(os.homedir(), '.node-red')',
/* Node-RED scans the `nodes` directory in the userDir to find local node files.
* The following property can be used to specify an additional directory to scan.
*/
//nodesDir: path.join(os.homedir(), '.node-red', 'nodes')',
/* By default, the Node-RED UI is available at http://localhost:1880/
* The following property can be used to specify a different root path.
* If set to false, this is disabled.
*/
//httpAdminRoot: process.env.httpAdminRoot || '/admin',
/* Some nodes, such as HTTP In, can be used to listen for incoming http requests.
* By default, these are served relative to '/'. The following property
* can be used to specifiy a different root path. If set to false, this is
* disabled.
*/
//httpNodeRoot: process.env.httpNodeRoot || '/red-nodes',
/* The following property can be used in place of 'httpAdminRoot' and 'httpNodeRoot',
* to apply the same root to both parts. Defaults to '/'.
*/
//httpRoot: process.env.httpRoot || '/red',
/* When httpAdminRoot is used to move the UI to a different root path, the
* following property can be used to identify a directory of static content
* that should be served at http://localhost:1880/.
*/
//httpStatic: process.env.httpStatic || false,
// The maximum size of HTTP request that will be accepted by the runtime api. Default: 5mb
//apiMaxLength: '5mb',
// If you installed the optional node-red-dashboard you can set it's path relative to httpRoot
//ui: { path: "ui" },
//#region ------ Securing Node-RED ------ //
/* To password protect the Node-RED editor and admin API, the following
* property can be used. See http://nodered.org/docs/security.html for details.
*/
//adminAuth: {
// type: "credentials",
// users: [{
// username: "admin",
// password: "$2a$08$zZWtXTja0fB1pzD4sHCMyOCMYz2Z6dNbM6tl8sJogENOMcxWV9DN.",
// permissions: "*"
// }]
//},
/* To password protect the node-defined HTTP endpoints (httpNodeRoot), or
* the static content (httpStatic), the following properties can be used.
* The pass field is a bcrypt hash of the password.
* See http://nodered.org/docs/security.html#generating-the-password-hash
*/
//httpNodeAuth: {user:"user",pass:"$2a$08$zZWtXTja0fB1pzD4sHCMyOCMYz2Z6dNbM6tl8sJogENOMcxWV9DN."},
//httpStaticAuth: {user:"user",pass:"$2a$08$zZWtXTja0fB1pzD4sHCMyOCMYz2Z6dNbM6tl8sJogENOMcxWV9DN."},
/* The following property can be used to enable HTTPS
* See http://nodejs.org/api/https.html#https_https_createserver_options_requestlistener
* for details on its contents.
* See the comment at the top of this file on how to load the `fs` module used by
* this setting.
*/
//https: {
//key: fs.readFileSync('privatekey.pem'),
//cert: fs.readFileSync('certificate.pem')
//},
/* The following property can be used to cause insecure HTTP connections to
* be redirected to HTTPS.
*/
//requireHttps: true,
/* The following property can be used to disable the editor. The admin API
* is not affected by this option. To disable both the editor and the admin
* API, use either the httpRoot or httpAdminRoot properties
*/
//disableEditor: false,
/* The following property can be used to configure cross-origin resource sharing
* in the HTTP nodes.
* See https://github.com/troygoode/node-cors#configuration-options for
* details on its contents. The following is a basic permissive set of options:
*/
//httpNodeCors: {
//origin: "*",
//methods: "GET,PUT,POST,DELETE"
//},
/* If you need to set an http proxy please set an environment variable
* called http_proxy (or HTTP_PROXY) outside of Node-RED in the operating system.
* For example - http_proxy=http://myproxy.com:8080
* (Setting it here will have no effect)
* You may also specify no_proxy (or NO_PROXY) to supply a comma separated
* list of domains to not proxy, eg - no_proxy=.acme.co,.acme.co.uk
*/
/* The following property can be used to add a custom middleware function
*in front of all http in nodes. This allows custom authentication to be
* applied to all http in nodes, or any other sort of common request processing.
*/
//httpNodeMiddleware: function(req,res,next) {
// Handle/reject the request, or pass it on to the http in node by calling next();
// Optionally skip our rawBodyParser by setting this to true;
//req.skipRawBodyParser = true;
//next();
//},
/* The following property can be used to pass custom options to the Express.js
* server used by Node-RED. For a full list of available options, refer
* to http://expressjs.com/en/api.html#app.settings.table
*/
// httpServerOptions: {
// http://expressjs.com/en/api.html#trust.proxy.options.table
// 'trust proxy': true, // t/f or subnet to trust or function, default false
// 'x-powered-by': true, // t/f default true
// },
/* The following property can be used to verify websocket connection attempts.
* This allows, for example, the HTTP request headers to be checked to ensure
* they include valid authentication information.
* WARNING: Verify only works on initial socket connection. This is a weakness of websockets not Node-RED
*/
//webSocketNodeVerifyClient: function(info) {
/*
* 'info' has three properties:
* - origin : the value in the Origin header
* - req : the HTTP request
* - secure : true if req.connection.authorized or req.connection.encrypted is set
*
* The function should return true if the connection should be accepted, false otherwise.
*
* Alternatively, if this function is defined to accept a second argument, callback,
* it can be used to verify the client asynchronously.
* The callback takes three arguments:
* - result : boolean, whether to accept the connection or not
* - code : if result is false, the HTTP error status to return
* - reason: if result is false, the HTTP reason string to return
*/
//return true
//},
//#endregion ----- Securing Node-RED ----- //
/* The following property can be used to seed Global Context with predefined
* values. This allows extra node modules to be made available with the
* Function node.
* For example,
* functionGlobalContext: { os:require('os') }
* can be accessed in a function block as:
* global.get("os")
*/
functionGlobalContext: {
_pid: pid,
//_env: process.env, // Pass environment vars to Node-RED
// os: require('os'),
},
/* `global.keys()` returns a list of all properties set in global context.
* This allows them to be displayed in the Context Sidebar within the editor.
* In some circumstances it is not desirable to expose them to the editor. The
* following property can be used to hide any property set in `functionGlobalContext`
* from being list by `global.keys()`.
* By default, the property is set to false to avoid accidental exposure of
* their values. Setting this to true will cause the keys to be listed.
*/
exportGlobalContextKeys: false,
/* Context Storage
* The following property can be used to enable context storage. The configuration
* provided here will enable file-based context that flushes to disk every 30 seconds.
* Refer to the documentation for further options: https://nodered.org/docs/api/context/
*/
// contextStorage: {
// default: {
// module:"memory"
// },
// file: {
// module:"localfilesystem"
// },
// },
/* The following property can be used to order the categories in the editor
* palette. If a node's category is not in the list, the category will get
* added to the end of the palette.
* If not set, the following default order is used:
*/
//paletteCategories: ['common','function','network','input','output','sequence','parser','storage''analysis','social','advanced',],
// Configure the logging output
logging: {
// Only console logging is currently supported
console: {
/*
* Level of logging to be recorded. Options are:
* fatal - only those errors which make the application unusable should be recorded
* error - record errors which are deemed fatal for a particular request + fatal errors
* warn - record problems which are non fatal + errors + fatal errors
* info - record information about the general running of the application + warn + error + fatal errors
* debug - record information which is more verbose than info + info + warn + error + fatal errors
* trace - record very detailed logging + debug + info + warn + error + fatal errors
* off - turn off all logging (doesn't affect metrics or audit)
*/
level: "info",
// Whether or not to include metric events in the log output
metrics: false,
// Whether or not to include audit events in the log output
audit: false
}
},
// Customising the editor
editorTheme: {
projects: {
// To enable the Projects feature, set this value to true
enabled: false
}
},
}
// EOF
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Nice. Since you offered, there are a few things I plan to steal. 
The problem isn't finding out whether the file is missing but deciding what to do about the missing parameters. 
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