Error message when settings file does not exist should be hidden

By the way, I think this is critical, we should not ship with a huge usability WTF like this in the install process.

Yes, a simple if-statement should be enough. Unfortunately, I don't quite understand what's going on in parseConnectionInfo(), especially the part where it says if (!is_array(self::$databaseInfo)) { self::$databaseInfo = $databaseInfo; }.

I would add if (is_array($databaseInfo)) { right before the first foreach, but I'm not sure where to close the if-block.

  /**
   * Process the configuration file for database information.
   */
  final public static function parseConnectionInfo() {
    global $databases;

    _db_check_install_needed();

    $databaseInfo = $databases;
    foreach ($databaseInfo as $index => $info) {
      foreach ($databaseInfo[$index] as $target => $value) {
        // If there is no "driver" property, then we assume it's an array of
        // possible connections for this target. Pick one at random. That allows
        //  us to have, for example, multiple slave servers.
        if (empty($value['driver'])) {
          $databaseInfo[$index][$target] = $databaseInfo[$index][$target][mt_rand(0, count($databaseInfo[$index][$target]) - 1)];
        }
      }
    }

    if (!is_array(self::$databaseInfo)) {
      self::$databaseInfo = $databaseInfo;
    }

    // Merge the new $databaseInfo into the existing.
    // array_merge_recursive() cannot be used, as it would make multiple
    // database, user, and password keys in the same database array.
    else {
      foreach ($databaseInfo as $database_key => $database_values) {
        foreach ($database_values as $target => $target_values) {
          self::$databaseInfo[$database_key][$target] = $target_values;
        }
      }
    }
  }

Yoroy (and everybody else): also see #753764: Duplicate and incorrect error messages during install, which is not about the php causing this error, but about the stunning ugliness and confusing messages on this page.

+++ includes/database/database.inc	26 Mar 2010 17:26:04 -0000
@@ -1459,27 +1459,27 @@
     // Merge the new $databaseInfo into the existing.

Shouldn't this be changed to "Merge the new $database_info into the existing."?

It looks like the patch from #19 was committed, which does contain some good changes, but not the bugfix this issue was all about in the first place (as crell also mentioned in #20). Here is a follow-up.

@farneville: That is not what this issue is about. I advise you to search for another topic that is related, or else start a new one.

Richard, that is not what this issue was about. I suspect that you renamed default.settings.php to settings.php, while you are supposed to copy it. If the information provided by the installer was frustrating, inconsistent, or otherwise not good enough for you, please open a new issue to improve that (I'll help if you send me the link). Your usability feedback is very welcome.