The ConfigParser Module

The ConfigParser module reads configuration files.

The files should be written in a format similar to Windows INI files. The file contains one or more sections, separated by section names written in brackets. Each section can contain one or more configuration items.

Here's the sample file used in Example 5-16:

[book] title: The Python Standard Library author: Fredrik Lundh email: fredrik@pythonware.com version: 2.0-001115 [ematter] pages: 250 [hardcopy] pages: 350

Example 5-16 uses the ConfigParser module to read the sample configuration file.

Example 5-16. Using the ConfigParser Module

File: configparser-example-1.py import ConfigParser import string config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser() config.read("samples/sample.ini") # print summary print print string.upper(config.get("book", "title")) print "by", config.get("book", "author"), print "(" + config.get("book", "email") + ")" print print config.get("ematter", "pages"), "pages" print # dump entire config file for section in config.sections(): print section for option in config.options(section): print " ", option, "=", config.get(section, option) THE PYTHON STANDARD LIBRARY by Fredrik Lundh (fredrik@pythonware.com) 250 pages book title = The Python Standard Library email = fredrik@pythonware.com author = Fredrik Lundh version = 2.0-001115 _ _name_ _ = book ematter _ _name_ _ = ematter pages = 250 hardcopy _ _name_ _ = hardcopy pages = 350

In Python 2.0, the ConfigParser module also allows you to write configuration data to a file, as Example 5-17 shows.

Example 5-17. Using the ConfigParser Module to Write Configuration Data

File: configparser-example-2.py import ConfigParser import sys config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser() # set a number of parameters config.add_section("book") config.set("book", "title", "the python standard library") config.set("book", "author", "fredrik lundh") config.add_section("ematter") config.set("ematter", "pages", 250) # write to screen config.write(sys.stdout) [book] title = the python standard library author = fredrik lundh [ematter] pages = 250