.. _usage: ===== Usage ===== First install the package with:: pip install configupdater Now we can simply do:: from configupdater import ConfigUpdater updater = ConfigUpdater() updater.read("setup.cfg") which would read the file ``setup.cfg`` that is found in many projects. To change the value of an existing key we can simply do:: updater["metadata"]["author"].value = "Alan Turing" At any point we can print the current state of the configuration file with:: print(updater) To update the read-in file just call ``updater.update_file()`` or ``updater.write("filename")`` to write the changed configuration file to another destination. Before actually writing, ConfigUpdater will automatically check that the updated configuration file is still valid by parsing it with the help of ConfigParser. Many of ConfigParser's methods still exists and it's best to look them up in the :doc:`API reference `. Let's look at some examples. Adding and removing options --------------------------- Let's say we have the following configuration in a string:: cfg = """ [metadata] author = Ada Lovelace summary = The Analytical Engine """ We can add an *license* option, i.e. a key/value pair, in the same way we would do with ConfigParser:: updater = ConfigUpdater() updater.read_string(cfg) updater["metadata"]["license"] = "MIT" A simple ``print(updater)`` will give show you that the new option was appended to the end:: [metadata] author = Ada Lovelace summary = The Analytical Engine license = MIT Since the license is really important to us let's say we want to add it before the ``summary`` and even add a short comment before it:: updater = ConfigUpdater() updater.read_string(cfg) (updater["metadata"]["summary"].add_before .comment("Ada would have loved MIT") .option("license", "MIT")) which would result in:: [metadata] author = Ada Lovelace # Ada would have loved MIT license = MIT summary = Analytical Engine calculating the Bernoulli numbers Using ``add_after`` would give the same result and looks like:: updater = ConfigUpdater() updater.read_string(cfg) (updater["metadata"]["author"].add_after .comment("Ada would have loved MIT") .option("license", "MIT")) Let's say we want to rename ``summary`` to the more common ``description``:: updater = ConfigUpdater() updater.read_string(cfg) updater["metadata"]["summary"].key = "description" If we wanted no summary at all, we could just do ``del updater["metadata"]["summary"]``. Adding and removing sections ---------------------------- Adding and remove sections just works like adding and removing options but on a higher level. Sticking to our *Ada Lovelace* example, let's say we want to add a section ``options`` just before ``metadata`` with a comment and two new lines to separate it from ``metadata``:: updater = ConfigUpdater() updater.read_string(cfg) (updater["metadata"].add_before .comment("Some specific project options") .section("options") .space(2)) As expected, this results in:: # Some specific project options [options] [metadata] author = Ada Lovelace summary = The Analytical Engine We could now fill the new section with options like we learnt before. If we wanted to rename an existing section we could do this with the help of the ``name`` attribute:: updater["metadata"].name = "MetaData" Sometimes it might be useful to inject a new section not in a programmatic way but more declarative. Let's assume we have thus defined our new section in a multi-line string:: sphinx_sect_str = """ [build_sphinx] source_dir = docs build_dir = docs/_build """ With the help of two ConfigUpdater objects we can easily inject this section into our example:: sphinx = ConfigUpdater() sphinx.read_string(sphinx_sect_str) sphinx_sect = sphinx["build_sphinx"] updater = ConfigUpdater() updater.read_string(cfg) (updater["metadata"].add_after .space() .section(sphinx_sect.detach())) The :meth:`~configupdater.block.Block.detach` method will remove the ``build_sphinx`` section from the first object and add it to the second object. This results in:: [metadata] author = Ada Lovelace summary = The Analytical Engine [build_sphinx] source_dir = docs build_dir = docs/_build Alternatively, if you want to preserve ``build_sphinx`` in both :class:`~configupdater.ConfigUpdater` objects (i.e., prevent it from being removed from the first while still adding a copy to the second), you call also rely on stdlib's :func:`copy.deepcopy` function instead of :meth:`~configupdater.block.Block.detach`:: from copy import deepcopy (updater["metadata"].add_after .space() .section(deepcopy(sphinx_sect))) This technique can be used for all objects inside ConfigUpdater: sections, options, comments and blank spaces. Shallow copies are discouraged in the context of ConfigUpdater because each configuration block keeps a reference to its container to allow easy document editing. When doing editions (such as adding or changing options and comments) based on a shallow copy, the results can be unreliable and unexpected. For more examples on how the API of ConfigUpdater works it's best to take a look into the `unit tests`_ and read the references. .. _`unit tests`: https://github.com/pyscaffold/configupdater/blob/main/tests/test_configupdater.py