lightweight human-readable config?

[Larry Bates]

You can have defaults in configparser .INI file if you like.

import ConfigParser
ini_filename='program.ini'
defaults={'key1':'value1','key2':'value2')
#
# This will initialize the ConfigParser with dictionary
# of key,value defaults.
INI=ConfigParser.ConfigParser(defaults)
#
# Make sure .INI file exists
#
if not os.path.exists:
    print "Unable to locate .INI filename=%s" % ini_filename
    sys.exit(2)
#
# Now read the .INI file's contents
#
INI.read(ini_filename)

section='INIT'
option='debug'
try:    debug=INI.getboolean(section, option)
except: debug=0

option='trace'
try:    trace=INI.getboolean(section, option)
except: trace=0

section='RUNTIME'
option='first_invoice'
try:    first_invoice=INI.get(section, option)
except:
    print ".INI file missing first_invoice key"
    sys.exit(2)

option='last_invoice'
try:    last_invoice=INI.get(section, option)
except:
    print ".INI file missing last_invoice key"
    sys.exit(2)

.
. remainder of program
.



.INI files have following format

[SECTION1]
KEY1=
KEY2=
KEY3=

[SECTION2]
KEY1=
KEY2=
KEY3=

You can have as many sections as you like and keynames
are unique under a section.  Normally I do something like:

[INIT]
debug=1
trace=1
logfile='program.log'

[RUNTIME]
first_invoice=12345
last_invoice=99999

This way I can turn on/off debug and trace modes and
have the program pick up RUNTIME parameters for processing.

Hope information helps.
-Larry






"Maxim Khesin" <max at cNvOiSsiPoAnMtech.com> wrote in message
news:U1fob.23140$Gq.6423269 at twister.nyc.rr.com...
> > Will the standard library ConfigParser work?  Point your web
> > browser here:
> >
> >     http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-ConfigParser.html
> >
> > Regards,
> > Heather
>
> Thanks for the pointer. It is not clear how this supports defaults
> (without understanding windows .ini (I cannot find official docs for
> that) of RFC 822 (I found too much documentation for this :) )
> m
>