.. rubric:: CondConfigParser — Python library for parsing configuration files with conditionals CondConfigParser is a Python library designed to help Python application developers to parse configuration files. Compared to well-known modules such as `configparser`_ and `json`_, the main specificity of CondConfigParser is that it allows the end user to define conditions using boolean operators and specific sections in the configuration file that are only applied when the corresponding condition is fulfilled. .. _configparser: https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html#module-configparser .. _json: https://docs.python.org/3/library/json.html#module-json The configuration file format allows the end user to define variables of type boolean, string or list. These variables, in addition to *external variables* defined by the application, can be combined with Python-like syntax to define the conditions (called *predicates*) mentioned in the previous paragraph. Lists in CondConfigParser may be nested at will. Variable definitions may refer to previously-defined variables. Predicates can combine ``==``, ``!=`` and ``in`` tests using as many logical ``or``, ``and``, ``not`` operators and parentheses as necessary. Such “logical expressiveness” (and much more) could be obtained by reading configuration files interpreted as Python code, however: - the syntax in such a case would not allow the almost-freeform options that are permitted by CondConfigParser (where the application chooses how to interpret the “options”); - when an application interprets user configuration files as Python code, it exposes its users to some risk in case a malicious user manages to sneak code of his choice into a configuration file of the victim (think about configuration file snippets copied from Internet forums...). Regarding the second point in particular, CondConfigParser never uses ``eval`` or ``exec`` to parse configuration files. It should thus be safe to work with any configuration file, including files prepared by malicious users. .. _end-of-intro: .. note:: The following text is extracted from the **release notes for version 1.0.3**. Home page --------- CondConfigParser's home page is located at: http://frougon.net/projects/CondConfigParser/ (it was on people.via.ecp.fr before April 30, 2016) Requirements ------------ This version of CondConfigParser requires `Python`_ 3.4 or later. Installation from source also requires `setuptools`_, but this should only be a concern if you want to install without `pip`_ (if you have ``pip``, you should already have ``setuptools``; and if not, installing ``pip`` is likely to cause ``setuptools`` to be installed at the same time). .. _Python: https://www.python.org/ .. _pip: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip Debian package -------------- If you are a Debian_ user, you can install CondConfigParser using the following lines in your ``/etc/apt/sources.list``:: deb http://frougon.net/debian-ffgo unstable main deb-src http://frougon.net/debian-ffgo unstable main The package is named ``python3-condconfigparser``. A package for Debian *stable* is also available. If this is what you want, just replace *unstable* with *jessie*, or whatever is the codename of the current Debian *stable* release, in the ``sources.list`` lines given above. .. _Debian: https://www.debian.org/ Quick installation instructions ------------------------------- This section describes installation from source. If you want to install from a Debian_ package instead, see above. If you have a working `pip`_ setup, you should be able to install CondConfigParser with:: pip install CondConfigParser (``pip install condconfigparser`` also works) When doing so, make sure that your ``pip`` executable runs with the Python 3 installation you want to install CondConfigParser for. For more detailed instructions, you can read the ``INSTALL.txt`` file from a release tarball. You may also want to consult the `“Installing Python Modules” chapter of the Python documentation `_ and the `pip documentation `_. Download -------- Typical installations with `pip`_ automatically download the latest release from `PyPI`_. However, in some cases, you may want to download the tarball or zip file yourself in order to install it later, possibly on a different machine. In such a case, you may get it `from PyPI `_ or `from Florent Rougon's home page `_. .. _PyPI: https://pypi.python.org/pypi Git repository -------------- CondConfigParser is maintained in a `Git repository `_ that can be cloned with:: git clone https://github.com/frougon/CondConfigParser Documentation ------------- The CondConfigParser Manual is written in `reStructuredText`_ format for the `Sphinx`_ documentation generator. The HTML documentation for the latest version of CondConfigParser as rendered by Sphinx is available at: http://frougon.net/projects/CondConfigParser/doc/ .. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html .. _Python: https://www.python.org/ .. _Sphinx: http://sphinx-doc.org/ .. _LaTeX: http://latex-project.org/ .. _Make: http://www.gnu.org/software/make/ The sources for the CondConfigParser Manual are located in the ``doc`` top-level directory of the CondConfigParser distribution, but the documentation build process pulls many parts from the source code, mainly docstrings. To generate the documentation yourself from CondConfigParser's code and the `reStructuredText`_ sources in the ``doc`` directory, first make sure you have `Python`_ 3.x, `Sphinx`_ and `Make`_ installed. Then, go to the ``doc`` directory and type, for instance:: make html You will find the output in the ``_build/html`` subdirectory of ``doc``. `Sphinx`_ can build the documentation in many other formats. For instance, if you have `LaTeX`_ installed, you can generate the CondConfigParser Manual in PDF format with:: make latexpdf You can run ``make`` from the ``doc`` directory to see a list of the available formats. Run ``make clean`` to clean up after the documentation build process. .. note:: The ``Makefile`` uses a Python script (``prepare-basic-pkg-info.py``) to generate ``basic-pkg-info.rst`` from the top-level ``README.rst`` file. By default, this script is interpreted by the ``python3`` executable. If you want to explicitely choose the interpreter to use, you can set the ``PYTHON`` Makefile variable like this:: make PYTHON=python3.4 html Note that this only affects running of ``prepare-basic-pkg-info.py``; the Python interpreter used by Sphinx in other places of the ``Makefile`` is determined by the `sphinx-build`_ executable that should be part of your Sphinx installation. For those who have installed `Sphinx`_ but not `Make`_, it is still possible to build the documentation with two commands such as:: python3 prepare-basic-pkg-info.py ../README.rst basic-pkg-info.rst sphinx-build -b html -d _build/doctrees . _build/html These commands must be run from the ``doc`` directory. Please refer to `sphinx-build`_ for more details. .. _sphinx-build: http://sphinx-doc.org/invocation.html Running the automated test suite -------------------------------- * If you want to run the automated test suite from an unpacked release tarball (or `Git`_ checkout), go to the root directory of that CondConfigParser distribution (the directory containing ``README.rst`` and the ``condconfigparser`` directory) and run:: python3 -m unittest (assuming of course that you want to run the tests with an executable called ``python3``). You may want to add the ``-v`` option at the end of the command in order to run the test suite in verbose mode. * On the other hand, if you have already installed CondConfigParser for a given Python installation and you want to test the installed package, go to the directory containing the installed package and run:: python3 -m unittest discover -t .. With a POSIX-style shell, you can combine both operations with the following command (that does not change your current directory):: ( cd base_dir/lib/python3.4/site-packages/condconfigparser && \ python3 -m unittest discover -t .. ) This command is given for a Python 3.4 installation: - rooted at ``base_dir`` (typically ``/usr``, ``/usr/local``, ``/opt/pythonX.Y`` [on Unix-like systems] or a directory containing a Python `venv`_ or `virtualenv`_) - using the ``python3`` executable. You may want to add the ``-v`` option after the ``discover`` argument in order to run the test suite in verbose mode. A successful run of the test suite looks like this:: % python3 -m unittest ....... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ran 7 tests in 0.052s OK % echo $? 0 % In the above output, each dot represents a successful test. The ``echo $?`` command shows the zero exit status, indicating success for all tests. In case of a failure, the exit status is non-zero. It is also possible to ask `setuptools`_ to run the test suite (by default in verbose mode, cf. `the corresponding documentation `_). For instance:: python3 setup.py test .. _Git: http://git-scm.com/ .. _venv: https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html .. _virtualenv: https://virtualenv.pypa.io/ .. _setuptools: https://setuptools.pypa.io/ .. # Local Variables: # coding: utf-8 # fill-column: 72 # End: