Added "--no-init" flag for "bigchaindb start" command

bigchaindb/commands/bigchaindb.py

@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ def run_start(args):
         logger.info('RethinkDB started with PID %s' % proc.pid)
 
     try:
-        if args.initialize_database:
+        if not args.skip_initialize_database:
             logger.info('Initializing database')
             _run_init()
     except DatabaseAlreadyExists:
@@ -302,10 +302,11 @@ def create_parser():
                               action='store_true',
                               help='Run RethinkDB on start')
 
-    start_parser.add_argument('--init',
-                              dest='initialize_database',
+    start_parser.add_argument('--no-init',
+                              dest='skip_initialize_database',
+                              default=False,
                               action='store_true',
-                              help='Force initialize database')
+                              help='Skip database initialization')
 
     # parser for configuring the number of shards
     sharding_parser = subparsers.add_parser('set-shards',

docs/server/source/appendices/azure-quickstart-template.md

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ API Server bind? (default `localhost:9984`): 0.0.0.0:9984
 
 Finally, run BigchainDB Server by doing:
 ```text
-bigchaindb start --init
+bigchaindb start
 ```
 
 BigchainDB Server should now be running on the Azure virtual machine.

docs/server/source/dev-and-test/setup-bdb-host.md

@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ waiting for connections on port 27017
 
 To run BigchainDB Server, do:
 ```text
-$ bigchaindb start --init
+$ bigchaindb start
 ```
 
 You can [run all the unit tests](running-all-tests.html) to test your installation.
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ You can verify that RethinkDB is running by opening the RethinkDB web interface
 
 To run BigchainDB Server, do:
 ```text
-$ bigchaindb start --init
+$ bigchaindb start
 ```
 
 You can [run all the unit tests](running-all-tests.html) to test your installation.

docs/server/source/quickstart.md

@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ $ bigchaindb -y configure mongodb
 
 I. Run BigchainDB Server:
 ```text
-$ bigchaindb start --init
+$ bigchaindb start
 ```
 
 J. Verify BigchainDB Server setup by visiting the BigchainDB Root URL in your browser:

docs/server/source/server-reference/bigchaindb-cli.md

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ If you want to force-drop the database (i.e. skipping the yes/no prompt), then u
 
 ## bigchaindb start
 
-Start BigchainDB assuming that the database has already been initialized using `bigchaindb init`. If that is not the case then passing the flag `--init` will initialize the database and start BigchainDB.
+Start BigchainDB. It always begins by trying a `bigchaindb init` first. See the note in the documentation for `bigchaindb init`. The database initialization step is optional and can be skipped by passing the `--no-init` flag i.e. `bigchaindb start --no-init`.
 You can also use the `--dev-start-rethinkdb` command line option to automatically start rethinkdb with bigchaindb if rethinkdb is not already running,
 e.g. `bigchaindb --dev-start-rethinkdb start`. Note that this will also shutdown rethinkdb when the bigchaindb process stops.
 The option `--dev-allow-temp-keypair` will generate a keypair on the fly if no keypair is found, this is useful when you want to run a temporary instance of BigchainDB in a Docker container, for example.