Revision 26 as of 2004-11-03 11:37:27

Clear message

There has been some recent debate about [http://python.org/doc/current/lib/module-ConfigParser.html ConfigParser] on the Python mailing lists. For more, see these threads:

This page serves as a place to record alternatives, and discuss (in a semi-permanent way) the features such a library might have. A new configuration parsing library could go into the Python standard library, probably in addition to the current ConfigParser module (perhaps with that module being deprecated).

Broken Out Sections

Implementations

Please list interesting implementations of config parsers here.

[http://www.voidspace.org.uk/atlantibots/configobj.html ConfigObj - A simple to use config file parser] Not really an alternative to ConfigParser, but a very easy to use config file parser. Dictionary like syntax with the ability to save modified config files. Preserves comments but not indentation.

M. Chermside's candidate

[http://www.mcherm.com/publish/2004-10-17/config.py code] and [http://www.mcherm.com/publish/2004-10-17/configTest.py test cases]. Currently allows files in either str or unicode, with sensible defaults. Allows dictionary or dotted-name access (though dotted-name can fail in some cases). Allows subsections of arbitrary length. For example,

    x.y = True 
    x.y.z = 47
    x.y.a = prime

Would allow x.y to be viewed as either a value ("True") or a section.

    x.y == "True"

but also

    x.y['a'] = 'prime'
    x.y['z'] = '47'

Note that keys and values are always strings or unicode -- no autoconversion to other types. Note that this focuses on storage and API -- reading and writing is left out at the moment, and might reasonably be in a separate module for each format supported.

.ini file parser and schema

Now contains two modules -- iniparser is a parser for .ini files. It needs to be subclassed to produce useful output. By subclassing the parser you can implement complex or simple config parsers, while allowing for context-sensitive error messages.

inischema allows schema definitions, with type specifications, attribute access, etc. It is still quite young, and missing some major features (like handling sections).

Available at:

Skip's Idea

In my use of INI files I've always been annoyed that I couldn't nest sections to an arbitrary depth and had to resort to baroque XML APIs to accomplish that sort of task. I also figured a structure defined by indentation would be a good way to go, though YAML always seemed too complex. I worked up a little [http://www.musi-cal.com/~skip/python/cfgparse.py config file parser] that reads and writes files like

empty section1:
level1 = new val
section1:
# this is a comment for section1.item1:
    item1 = item 1
          # this is another comment
    subsection:  
        item2 = item 2
section2:
   subsection:
       item3 = item 3
very last = 7

Dan Gass'

[https://sourceforge.net/projects/config-py/ config-py] allows either strings (safe) or evaluated code (powerful) with the same API. It needs python 2.3, or at least dict.pop()

Vinay Sajip's implementation

The [http://www.red-dove.com/python_config.html config] module allows a hierarchical configuration scheme with support for mappings and sequences, cross-references between one part of the configuration and another, the ability to flexibly access real Python objects without full-blown eval(), an include facility, simple expression evaluation and the ability to change, save and merge configurations. It has been developed on python 2.3 but should work on version 2.2 or greater.

A simple example - with the example configuration file:

messages:
[
  {
    stream : `sys.stderr`
    message: 'Welcome'
    name: 'Harry'
  }
  {
    stream : `sys.stdout`
    message: 'Welkom'
    name: 'Ruud'
  }
  {
    stream : $messages[0].stream
    message: 'Bienvenue'
    name: Yves
  }
]

a program to read the configuration would be::

from config import Config

f = file('simple.cfg')
cfg = Config(f)
for m in cfg.messages:
    s = '%s, %s' % (m.message, m.name)
    try:
        print >> m.stream, s
    except IOError, e:
        print e

which, when run, would yield the console output::

Welcome, Harry
Welkom, Ruud
Bienvenue, Yves

Features

This is a list of features that should be taken into account. Certainly not all these features are required; maybe some aren't even desired.

To be more explicit, it should work well with at least optparse (Optik), .ini files, .xml files, and computed-at-runtime values. The interface to the various storage mechanisms can be different, but developers shouldn't have to repeat information across the various formats; adding an option (and default value/help message/restrictions) should only need to be done once.

Discussion

Discuss. Please sign your name.

What exactly is the goal? A new API to access configuration info? Or a specific file format itself? Or both? I don't have much problem with the current ConfigParser but ideally I would like use a 'simpler' API. This would allow attribute access (a.b.c) to values, provide default values, convert some types, and do some constraint checking (xyz is required) etc. It's very possible to get this functionality through a wrapper on top of ConfigParser. IMO that is the best approach, as long as there is a way to map the same API over a different underlying file format, such as XML. I think the 'dynamic nesting' point above is outside the scope of the config access API. -- Shalabh

Three features I want in a config parser are 1) keyed settings 2) pulling in settings from multiple configurition files, and 3) ability for user to pass in real python objects through the settings. The "keyed" settings can be thought of as namespaces and I need an arbitrary number of key nestings. For certain applications I EXPECT the user to pass in python objects that meet a specified API. This allows the user to customize a certain operation however they would like with the full power and flexibility of python. I then don't need my tool to be tailered with a switch statement having custom solutions for each user type. This would require the configuration file (or parts of it) to be able to be executed as a python script and I realize this is a security hole that would be unacceptable to many. What I would propose is the config parser module support two methodologies, both sharing the same API and configuration file syntax. One would parse the config file and prevent security issues, the other would either execute the whole config file or be a combination parse/execute but would support attaching real python objects to configuration settings. These features have been implemented in a configuration parser https://sourceforge.net/projects/config-py/ (needs python 2.3 unless the dict pops are reimplemented) and is available for experimentation/use. -- dan.gass@gmail.com 28oct04

I think it is reasonable to ask the setting code to create the object (possibly by running a random string); the config system just needs to accept objects that have already been made. A round-trip is useful, but I'm not sure source code is the best way to do that; editing will probably require an external tool anyhow. Maybe just use pickle to save arbitrary objects? (And avoid storing them *within* the config, as much as possible.) -- Jim J Jewett

Complexity killed the cat!

Look at what happened to urllib2 - the entry level for new users was greatly enhanced, but the added functionality was really little more than what you could already do more simply with urllib. With that in mind, I think the new ConfigParser should in it's simplest form act very closely like the original ConfigParser.

Unable to edit the page? See the FrontPage for instructions.