Re: Dealing with config files what's the options

[Dave Brueck]

Jorgen Grahn wrote:
On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 20:38:28 -0500, Tom Willis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
How are the expert pythoneers dealing with config files?
...
Any ideas?

How about writing them in Python?
Depending on who will be editing the config files, this can be a great 
approach.
At the simplest level, a config.py file like this is so easy to use:
# Net settings
timeoutSec = 5.3
maxConnections = 3
# Other stuff
foo = 'bar'
This type of a format is easy to use for just about anybody who has ever had to 
use config files before. What's nice is that the code to use it is 
straightforward too:

import config
conn = config.maxConnections
...
A few times I've tried to use accessor functions to ensure that the values are 
present or valid or whatever, but I stopped doing that because in practice it's 
just not needed (again, for users who are familiar with the concept of config 
files).

A slightly more elaborate approach gives you full structure:
class Net:
    maxConnections = 12
class System:
    class Logging:
        root = '/var/logs'
This prevents individual setting names from getting unwieldy, and the code that 
uses it can be pretty readable too:

logRoot = config.System.Logging.root
or, if there are lots of retrievals to do:
Logging = config.System.Logging
logRoot = Logging.root
... etc ...
Using classes asks a little bit more of the users (they can break it a little 
more easily), but again, in practice it really hasn't been a problem at all.

-Dave
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