Most Pythonic way to provide global configuration variables in config.py? [closed]

Answer 1

I like this solution for small applications:

class App:
  __conf = {
    "username": "",
    "password": "",
    "MYSQL_PORT": 3306,
    "MYSQL_DATABASE": 'mydb',
    "MYSQL_DATABASE_TABLES": ['tb_users', 'tb_groups']
  }
  __setters = ["username", "password"]

  @staticmethod
  def config(name):
    return App.__conf[name]

  @staticmethod
  def set(name, value):
    if name in App.__setters:
      App.__conf[name] = value
    else:
      raise NameError("Name not accepted in set() method")

And then usage is:

if __name__ == "__main__":
   # from config import App
   App.config("MYSQL_PORT")     # return 3306
   App.set("username", "hi")    # set new username value
   App.config("username")       # return "hi"
   App.set("MYSQL_PORT", "abc") # this raises NameError

.. you should like it because:

• uses class variables (no object to pass around/ no singleton required),
• uses encapsulated built-in types and looks like (is) a method call on App,
• has control over individual config immutability, mutable globals are the worst kind of globals.
• promotes conventional and well named access / readability in your source code
• is a simple class but enforces structured access, an alternative is to use @property, but that requires more variable handling code per item and is object-based.
• requires minimal changes to add new config items and set its mutability.

--Edit--: For large applications, storing values in a YAML (i.e. properties) file and reading that in as immutable data is a better approach (i.e. blubb/ohaal's answer). For small applications, this solution above is simpler.

Answer 2

Let's be honest, we should probably consider using a Python Software Foundation maintained library:

https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html

Config example: (ini format, but JSON available)

[DEFAULT]
ServerAliveInterval = 45
Compression = yes
CompressionLevel = 9
ForwardX11 = yes

[bitbucket.org]
User = hg

[topsecret.server.com]
Port = 50022
ForwardX11 = no

Code example:

>>> import configparser
>>> config = configparser.ConfigParser()
>>> config.read('example.ini')
>>> config['DEFAULT']['Compression']
'yes'
>>> config['DEFAULT'].getboolean('MyCompression', fallback=True) # get_or_else

Making it globally-accessible:

import configpaser
class App:
 __conf = None

 @staticmethod
 def config():
  if App.__conf is None:  # Read only once, lazy.
   App.__conf = configparser.ConfigParser()
   App.__conf.read('example.ini')
  return App.__conf

if __name__ == '__main__':
 App.config()['DEFAULT']['MYSQL_PORT']
 # or, better:
 App.config().get(section='DEFAULT', option='MYSQL_PORT', fallback=3306)
 ....

Downsides:

• Uncontrolled global mutable state.