3: Initialize the configuration

Initializing the configuration

Let's initialize our new server's configuration files with some sensible defaults by running the bundle bin/init script.

bin/init

This script will not overwrite any existing configuration files.

Now let's check the contents of the config/ directory using the ls command:

ls config

If everything was successfully initialized you should see three configuration files overleaf.rc, variables.env and version. These are the main server configuration files and allow you to customize how your server operates and how your users interact with your instance.

Name	Description
overleaf.rc	The main top-level configuration file.
variables.env	Environment variables loaded into the Docker container.
version	The version of the Docker image to use.

For now, it's enough to know that these files exist and where you can find them. Later in the documentation we'll go through each of the files in more detail and explain how you can customize your instance using them. If you want to skip ahead you can see a full breakdown of these configuration files on the Files and locations page.