Configuring Splunk - Implementing Splunk: Big Data Reporting and Development for Operational Intelligence - page 278

Configuration merging example 1
Say we have the base configuration default/sample1.conf :
[foo]
bar=10
la=20
And say we merge a second configuration, local/sample1.conf :
[foo]
bar=15
The resulting configuration would be:
[foo]
bar=15
la=20
The things to notice are as follows:
• The second configuration does not simply replace the prior configuration
• The value of bar is taken from the second configuration
• The lack of a la property in the second configuration does not remove
the value from the final configuration
Configuration merging example 2
Say we have the base configuration default/sample2.conf :
[foo]
bar = 10
la=20
[pets]
cat = red
Dog=rex
And say we merge a second configuration, local/sample2.conf :
[pets]
cat=blue
dog=fido
fish = bubbles