config-file 0.8.0

Manage your configuration files.

Config File

Manage and manipulate your configuration files

This python package is currently in rapid development and is in a pre-alpha phase. The API is liable to break until v1 so if you're going to use it, pinning the version is recommended. All notable changes are kept track of in the changelog.

Config File allows you to use the same simple API for manipulating INI, JSON, YAML, and TOML configuration files. For the time being, it only supports INI and JSON.

Installation

$ pip install config_file

Example

The config_file package exposes ConfigFile, ParsingError, and BaseParser to the public API.

Sample Configuration File

config.ini

[calendar]
today = monday
start_week_on_sunday = false
today_index = 0
quarter_hours_passed = 0.25

Create a ConfigFile

from config_file import ConfigFile

config = ConfigFile("~/.config/test/config.ini")

Output your config file as a string

config.stringify()
>>> '[calendar]\ntoday = monday\nstart_week_on_sunday = false\ntoday_index = 0\nquarter_hours_passed = 0.25\n\n'

Retrieve values or sections

A section.key format is used for retrieving and setting values.

# Values from the config file are automatically parsed
config.get("calendar.start_week_on_sunday")
>>> False

# Unless you don't want them to be parsed
config.get("calendar.start_week_on_sunday", parse_type=False)
>>> 'false'

config.get("calendar")
>>> {'today': 'monday', 'start_week_on_sunday': False, 'today_index': 0, 'quarter_hours_passed': 0.25}

Set values

config.set("calendar.today_index", 20)
>>> True
config.stringify()
>>> '[calendar]\ntoday = monday\nstart_week_on_sunday = false\ntoday_index = 20\nquarter_hours_passed = 0.25\n\n'

# If you specify a section that isn't in your config file, the section and the key are added for you.
config.set("week.tuesday_index", 2)
>>> True
config.stringify()
>>> '[calendar]\ntoday = monday\nstart_week_on_sunday = false\ntoday_index = 20\nquarter_hours_passed = 0.25\n\n[week]\ntuesday_index = 2\n\n'

Delete sections or key/value pairs.

config.delete('week')
>>> True
config.stringify()
>>> '[calendar]\ntoday = monday\nstart_week_on_sunday = false\ntoday_index = 20\nquarter_hours_passed = 0.25\n\n'

config.delete('calendar.today')
>>> True
config.stringify()
>>> '[calendar]\nstart_week_on_sunday = false\ntoday_index = 20\nquarter_hours_passed = 0.25\n\n'

Check whether you have a particular section or key

config.has('calendar')
>>> True

config.has('week')
>>> False

config.has('calendar.start_week_on_sunday')
>>> True

Save when you're done

Write the contents of the file back out. set() and delete() both modify the contents of the file and require a call to save() to write those changes back out.

config.save()
>>> True

Restore the file back to its original

The current configuration file would be deleted and replaced by a copy of the original. By default, since our passed in config file was at path ~/.config/test/config.ini, restore_original() will look for ~/.config/test/config.original.ini.

config.restore_original()
>>> True

# But you can also specify the original config file explicitly.
config.restore_original(original_file_path="~/some_other_directory/this_is_actually_the_original.ini")
>>> True

Using your own parser

You can still use config file, even if you don't use one of our supported configuration formats. The ConfigFile object swaps in the parser it needs based on the file format. However, the constructor takes in an optional parser argument that you can use to supply your own custom parser. The only requirement is that the parser must be a concrete implementation of BaseParser.