[Discuss] Application config files

[don.silvia at gmail.com (Don Silvia)]

configparser handles multi-line values by indenting: 
https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html#supported-ini-file-structure 
.

ConfigObj (which I prefer) uses triple quotes: 
https://configobj.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configobj.html#the-config-file-format

Don

On 7/17/19 10:58 PM, John Abreau wrote:
> Is there a convention for multi-line records in .ini files?
>
> I've been using .ini files extensively for over 20 years now, having long
> ago rolled my own tools for reading them, and when I needed multi-line
> records, I just incorporated the syntax of here-documents from the UNIX
> shell. For example:
>
> [events]
>> id=2019-jul
>> date=2019-07-17
>> start=6:30 pm
>> stop=9:00 pm
>> location=mite51-315
>> organization=blu
>> topic=Our 25th Anniversary
>> summary=A look back at our history
>> abstract << EOF
>> Boston Linux & UNIX was founded in 1994, originally as a Special Interest
>> Group  (SIG) of The Boston Computer Society (BCS). When the BCS
>> dissolved itself in 1996, our group's volunteer team chose to continue as
>> an independent user group.
>>
>> We celebrate our 25th anniversary this month with pizza and cake, and a
>> retrospective look at our group's history.
>> EOF
>> confirmed=t
>>
> If there's a standards-compliant alternative for handling this, then I'd be
> able to use standard INI-processing tools.
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 12:48 AM John Hall <johnhall2.0 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Use a standard library configuration file parser rather than rolling your
>> own.
>> For example configparser standard lib will provide your code with read and
>> write for ini files. There is no reason to introduce parsing errors or
>> vulnerabilities by rolling your own parser.
>> I would maintain the defaults as python code to generate the file if no ini
>> file is found rather than checking the ini file into version control.
>> Add a format version number to the ini file if you foresee a need to
>> migrate settings after updates. __fmt_ver_num  really is friendly enough.
>> Decide if users are going to use the gui or just edit the file, or separate
>> concerns and have gui related settings handled by the gui and have the user
>> edit the end of the file for all other settings.
>>
>> I prefer to edit a file list in a file editor not in a little box.
>>
>> Most linux settings files have their own  format. I agree that a standard
>> format is preferable for most apps but i really do not care or believe it
>> makes any difference which one you choose.
>>
>> On Sat, Jul 13, 2019 at 8:17 PM Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 12 Jul 2019 16:16:15 -0500
>>> Derek Martin <invalid at pizzashack.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 02:07:20PM -0400, Steve Litt wrote:
>>>>> On Fri, 12 Jul 2019 13:40:01 -0400
>>>>> Dan Ritter <dsr at randomstring.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Jerry Feldman wrote:
>>>>>>> I have an application that I wrote where I am using a .ini style
>>>>>>> file for config. I chose that as an afterthought but maybe JSON,
>>>>>>> YAML, or TOML might be better formats.
>>>>> JSON is out from the get-go: It's not meant to be read and written
>>>>> by humans.
>>>> I largely disagree.  If it's currently in INI format the equivalent
>>>> JSON should generally be perfectly human-readable, e.g.:
>>>>
>>> {"thingy": {"name":  "foo","ip": "10.1.2.3", "value": 1,
>>> "live":  true, "notes": null}}
>>>
>>> Your assertions (not copied here) about Python writing beautful
>>> json is true, but humans, not so much. One could easily write a Python
>>> json beautifier to help, but I still think complex json is hard for a
>>> human to edit.
>>>
>>> I think about 20 lines of Python could turn an .ini file into a list of
>>> dicts.
>>>
>>> SteveT
>>>
>>> Steve Litt
>>> July 2019 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques
>>>       of the Successful Technologist
>>> http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at blu.org
>>> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
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>