Improve Documentation Section 5.3.2. Configuration Backups

Hi,
I'm currently installing a couchdb and wanted to take care for backup/restore, and found the documentation to be rather vague about this.

The dockerhub page at
https://hub.docker.com/_/couchdb
tells to just cover /opt/couchdb/data as a persistent volume.

But then, its entrypoint touches /opt/couchdb/etc/local.d/docker.ini, where couchdb writes some configuration in, i.e. at least

[admins]
admin = ...

[couchdb]
uuid = ...

[chttpd_auth]
secret = ...

while https://docs.couchdb.org/en/stable/maintenance/backups.html recommends to backup the full /opt/couchdb/etc directory, and says

> Simple back up the entire etc/ directory to ensure a consistent configuration after restoring from backup.

which not really states, what happens, if I don't have a backup of etc.

E.g. what happens if the uuid= or secret= .. is lost and the database is just started from scratch with a regenerated docker.ini.

What happens if the uuid or the hostname changes? Can I still access the database, will it accept the data files? Will it break replication?

What happens, if I start a new docker instance, and do mount a a docker.ini with old values into the etc directory, but don't make it writable?

What exactly does the statement "to ensure a consistent configuration after restoring from backup." mean? What will work, and what won't work, if etc has not been restored?

regards
Hadmut

Compare the Docker Hub guidance for persisting /opt/couchdb/data with the maintenance/backups.html recommendation to back up /opt/couchdb/etc. Review the entrypoint behavior described in the issue and determine the documented consequences of losing or restoring docker.ini, including uuid, secret, hostname, and writability. Done means the backup documentation clearly explains which restore scenarios work and which do not.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.