Noob confused by ConfigParser defaults

[Ben Finney]

Ian Pilcher <arequipeno at gmail.com> writes:

> How do a set a default for option-1 *only* in section-1?

I think you misinderstand the semantics of what ‘configparser’ expects
<URL:https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html#configparser-objects>:

    Default values […] are used in interpolation if an option used is
    not defined elsewhere.

    When default_section is given, it specifies the name for the special
    section holding default values for other sections and interpolation
    purposes (normally named "DEFAULT").

The default values are a special pseudo-section that holds defaults for
the named options *anywhere else* in the configuration. It's not done
per-section, it's done for the entire configuration input.

This is IIUC because of the long-standing semantics of the format that
inspired the ConfigParser behaviour.

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Ben Finney