base_url really necessary?

[eluser]Kamarg[/eluser]
For your config settings you can always do an if/else or switch on $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] to distinguish which connection settings to use for dev and live environments. That way you don't need to ignore your config folder at all. Same goes for error_reporting in index.php. I've been using this method for my config files for the better part of a year without running into any issues.