yascp 0.3.2

Yet Another Simple Configuration Parser for INI-style configuration files.

This is Yet Another Simple Configuration Parser module for INI style configurations files.

Installation

pip install yascp

easy_install yascp

USAGE

A sample configuration is looking like this and is saved in file called example.conf:

[database]
login = user
password = topsecret
host = example.com
port = 3306

[backend_api]
login = api_user
password = api_password
url = http://example.com:9080

In scripts

The constructor takes only two arguments - first one is the name or absolute path to the configuration file (see below “Configuration File” for more details on this) and a dictionary of default values which will be parsed before any actual configuration file is read. If same section and option is found in a configuration file then the default will be overwritten. Until version 0.2.6 KEY and VALUE could be separated by the ‘=’ sign only but from 2.7 third argument may be passed on to specify the delimiter and it can be anything. Default is still ‘=’ if not specified.

import yascp
config = yascp.parser.Parser(configuration_file_name = 'example.conf', defaults = {'extra.port':'666'}, delimiter = '=')

login      = config.database.username
password   = config.database.password
host       = config.database.host
port       = config.database.port

print config.backend_api.url
print config.extra.port

There is a convenience method available to print off all of the configuration parsed.

So running:

config.print_all()

would print to the screen following:

backend_api.url = http://example.com:9080
backend_api.password = api_password
backend_api.login = api_user
extra.port = 666
database.host = example.com
database.port = 3306
database.login = user
database.password = topsecret

Notice: Everything is a string. The module does not distinguish any type of data and so the developer should know where an integer for example is expected an perform all required tests/handle possible errors.

In command line

yascp_parser.py [full path to or name of an INI config file] [section.option to be fetched|--print-all]

The script takes two arguments

The first argument is the name of a configuration file or full path to one (see below for “Configuration File” section for more details).

The second argument may be “–list-all” to obtain a list of all available options or a key of specific option to get value for this option only (run first with “–list-all” to see what exactly can be used here).

If an option doesn’t belong to any of the sections in the configuration file then it should be addresses with “default” section, i.e:

default.[myoption]

Sample usage:

python parser.py /tmp/example.conf --print-all
backend_api.url = http://example.com:9080
backend_api.password = api_password
backend_api.login = api_user
database.host = example.com
database.port = 3306
database.login = user
database.password = topsecret

Knowing now what options are avaialbe you can fetch only this that you need:

python parser.py /tmp/example.conf backend_api.url
http://example.com:9080

Configuration File

If absolute path is provided to a configuration file then only that file is read but if only a name of configuration file is given then the script will attempt to read a file by that name in following locations and order:

1. /etc/[config file name]

2. ~/[config file name]

3. Directory from which the script has been ran.

Notice: If more than one configuration file is present then the duplicated options set for example in a configuration file saved in /etc/ will be overwritten by those in user’s home directory and so on.

Changelog

0.3.2

• Fixing some minor errors, reformatting, moving away from Python 2 no further compatibility can be guaranteed

0.3.1

• Python 2 & 3 compatibility added

0.3.0

• fixed issue with “print_all” method where if user overwritten one value with anything else than string it would break

• corrected number of code style issues (too long lines, etc.) in Parser module

0.2.9 ^^^ - configuration parsing errors are now caught if invoked from command line so no trace is printed - ‘~’ is now expanded to user’s home directory if Parser is initialized from within external Python code - minor spelling corrections

0.2.8 ^^^ - minor spelling corrections, documentation corrections/updates

0.2.7 ^^^ - extended functionality - now a delimiter can be passed on when used as a module so from now on KEY and VALUE can be separated by = as usual but also space character, tab character or anything else

0.2.6 ^^^ - fixed a “hidden” issue with infinite recursion within __getattr__ method; this didn’t affect the functionality though

0.2.5 ^^^ - introduced proper access point from shell via script yascp_parser.py (available from PATH after installation) - introduced possibility to execute the module by a direct call, i.e. python -m yascp