Why is the dakota.yaml file created?

[kbarnhart]

The dakota.yaml configuration file is not a file needed for standard command line operation with an analysis driver script. Yet dakotathon's dakota.setup() method creates both a yaml configuration file and the standard dakota.in input file.

Would it be possible to add a paragraph to the documentation that states when each of these files is used and when each of them is not needed.

In my use case I will be using looping through many hundreds of dakota runs so reducing the number of files created to the minimum is a valuable quality.

[kbarnhart]

An addendum:

I know that I can use the function dakota.write_input_file() to just make the input file, the function dakota.serialize() to just make the yaml file, and the function dakota.setup() to make both.

Documentation that specifies when the dakota.in file and/or the dakota.yaml file are necessary for dakota.run() to execute correctly (e.g. when using a plugin an analysis driver script) would be helpful.