reading optional configuration from a file

[Ulrich Eckhardt]

Hi!

I have a few tests that require a network connection. Typically, the 
target will be localhost on port 20000. However, sometimes these 
settings differ, so I want to be able to optionally set them.

What I'm currently doing is this:

     try:
         from settings import REMOTE_HOST, REMOTE_PORT
     except ImportError:
         REMOTE_HOST = 'localhost'
         REMOTE_PORT = 20000

This works fine. However, there are actually a few more settings that 
can be overridden, so I changed the whole thing to this:

     try:
         from settings import *
         if not 'REMOTE_HOST' in locals():
             REMOTE_HOST = 'localhost'
         if not 'REMOTE_PORT' in locals():
             REMOTE_PORT = 20000
     except ImportError:
         REMOTE_HOST = 'localhost'
         REMOTE_PORT = 20000

Yes, wildcard imports are dangerous, but that's something I don't mind 
actually, this is an internal tool for clueful users. Still, this is 
ugly, since the defaults are stored redundantly, so I went to this variant:

     REMOTE_HOST = 'localhost'
     REMOTE_PORT = 20000
     try:
         from settings import *
     except ImportError:
         pass

Now, in order to avoid ambiguities, I thought about using relative 
imports, but there I'm stomped because wildcard imports are not 
supported for relative imports, it seems.


How would you do it? Any other suggestions?

Cheers!

Uli