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

Question

How about just using the built-in types like this:

config = {
    "mysql": {
        "user": "root",
        "pass": "secret",
        "tables": {
            "users": "tb_users"
        }
        # etc
    }
}

You'd access the values as follows:

config["mysql"]["tables"]["users"]

---

If you are willing to sacrifice the potential to compute expressions inside your config tree, you could use YAML and end up with a more readable config file like this:

mysql:
  - user: root
  - pass: secret
  - tables:
    - users: tb_users

and use a library like PyYAML to conventiently parse and access the config file

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.

How about using classes?

# config.py
class MYSQL:
    PORT = 3306
    DATABASE = 'mydb'
    DATABASE_TABLES = ['tb_users', 'tb_groups']

# main.py
from config import MYSQL

print(MYSQL.PORT) # 3306

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.

A small variation on Husky's idea that I use. Make a file called 'globals' (or whatever you like) and then define multiple classes in it, as such:

#globals.py

class dbinfo :      # for database globals
    username = 'abcd'
    password = 'xyz'

class runtime :
    debug = False
    output = 'stdio'

Then, if you have two code files c1.py and c2.py, both can have at the top

import globals as gl

Now all code can access and set values, as such:

gl.runtime.debug = False
print(gl.dbinfo.username)

People forget classes exist, even if no object is ever instantiated that is a member of that class. And variables in a class that aren't preceded by 'self.' are shared across all instances of the class, even if there are none. Once 'debug' is changed by any code, all other code sees the change.

By importing it as gl, you can have multiple such files and variables that lets you access and set values across code files, functions, etc., but with no danger of namespace collision.

This lacks some of the clever error checking of other approaches, but is simple and easy to follow.