diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 79551ce7..d1dd69ba 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -145,13 +145,6 @@ if (BUILD_API)
    )
 endif()
 
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# default settings
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-configure_file(${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/settings/defaults.php
-               ${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/settings/settings.php)
-
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Tests
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/settings/defaults.php b/settings/defaults.php
deleted file mode 100644
index 876ca27e..00000000
--- a/settings/defaults.php
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,110 +0,0 @@
-<?php
-if (file_exists(getenv('NOMINATIM_SETTINGS'))) require_once(getenv('NOMINATIM_SETTINGS'));
-if (file_exists(CONST_InstallDir.'/settings/local.php')) require_once(CONST_InstallDir.'/settings/local.php');
-
-@define('CONST_Limit_Reindexing', true);
-// Restrict search languages.
-// Normally Nominatim will include all language variants of name:XX
-// in the search index. Set this to a comma separated list of language
-// codes, to restrict import to a subset of languages.
-// Currently only affects the import of country names and special phrases.
-@define('CONST_Languages', false);
-// Rules for normalizing terms for comparison before doing comparisons.
-// The default is to remove accents and punctuation and to lower-case the
-// term. Spaces are kept but collapsed to one standard space.
-@define('CONST_Term_Normalization_Rules', ":: NFD (); [[:Nonspacing Mark:] [:Cf:]] >;  :: lower (); [[:Punctuation:][:Space:]]+ > ' '; :: NFC ();");
-
-/* Set to true after importing Tiger house number data for the US.
-   Note: The tables must already exist or queries will throw errors.
-         After changing this setting run ./utils/setup --create-functions
-         again. */
-@define('CONST_Use_US_Tiger_Data', false);
-/* Set to true after importing other external house number data.
-   Note: the aux tables must already exist or queries will throw errors.
-        After changing this setting run ./utils/setup --create-functions
-        again. */
-@define('CONST_Use_Aux_Location_data', false);
-
-// Proxy settings
-@define('CONST_HTTP_Proxy', false);
-@define('CONST_HTTP_Proxy_Host', 'proxy.mydomain.com');
-@define('CONST_HTTP_Proxy_Port', '3128');
-@define('CONST_HTTP_Proxy_Login', '');
-@define('CONST_HTTP_Proxy_Password', '');
-
-// Paths
-@define('CONST_Osm2pgsql_Binary', CONST_InstallDir.'/osm2pgsql/osm2pgsql');
-@define('CONST_Pyosmium_Binary', '@PYOSMIUM_PATH@');
-@define('CONST_Tiger_Data_Path', CONST_DataDir.'/data/tiger');
-@define('CONST_Wikipedia_Data_Path', CONST_DataDir);
-@define('CONST_Phrase_Config', CONST_DataDir.'/settings/phrase_settings.php');
-@define('CONST_Address_Level_Config', CONST_DataDir.'/settings/address-levels.json');
-@define('CONST_Import_Style', CONST_DataDir.'/settings/import-full.style');
-
-// osm2pgsql settings
-@define('CONST_Osm2pgsql_Flatnode_File', null);
-
-// tablespace settings
-// osm2pgsql caching tables (aka slim mode tables) - update only
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Osm2pgsql_Data', false);
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Osm2pgsql_Index', false);
-// osm2pgsql output tables (aka main table) - update only
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Place_Data', false);
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Place_Index', false);
-// address computation tables - update only
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Address_Data', false);
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Address_Index', false);
-// search tables - needed for lookups
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Search_Data', false);
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Search_Index', false);
-// additional data, e.g. TIGER data, type searches - needed for lookups
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Aux_Data', false);
-@define('CONST_Tablespace_Aux_Index', false);
-
-//// Replication settings
-
-// Base URL of replication service
-@define('CONST_Replication_Url', 'https://planet.openstreetmap.org/replication/minute');
-
-// Maximum size in MB of data to download per batch
-@define('CONST_Replication_Max_Diff_size', '30');
-// How long until the service publishes the next diff
-// (relative to the age of data in the diff).
-@define('CONST_Replication_Update_Interval', '75');
-// How long to sleep when no update could be found
-@define('CONST_Replication_Recheck_Interval', '60');
-
-// If true, send CORS headers to allow access
-@define('CONST_NoAccessControl', true);
-
-// Set this to the /mapicon directory of your nominatim-ui to enable returning
-// icon URLs with the results.
-@define('CONST_MapIcon_URL', false);
-// Language to assume when none is supplied with the query.
-// When set to false, the local language (i.e. the name tag without suffix)
-// will be used.
-@define('CONST_Default_Language', false);
-
-@define('CONST_Search_AreaPolygons', true);
-
-@define('CONST_Search_BatchMode', false);
-
-@define('CONST_Search_NameOnlySearchFrequencyThreshold', 500);
-// If set to true, then reverse order of queries will be tried by default.
-// When set to false only selected languages allow reverse search.
-@define('CONST_Search_ReversePlanForAll', true);
-
-// Maximum number of OSM ids that may be queried at once
-// for the places endpoint.
-@define('CONST_Places_Max_ID_count', 50);
-
-// Number of different geometry formats that may be queried in parallel.
-// Set to zero to disable polygon output.
-@define('CONST_PolygonOutput_MaximumTypes', 1);
-
-// Log settings
-// Set to true to log into new_query_log table.
-// You should set up a cron job that regularly clears out this table.
-@define('CONST_Log_DB', false);
-// Set to a file name to enable logging to a file.
-@define('CONST_Log_File', false);