The right way to share settings among modules

Question

I have a project with 10 different python files. It has classes and functions - pretty much the lot. I do want to share specific data that will represent the settings in the project between all the project files.

I came up with creating a settings.py file:

settings = {}
settings['max_bitrate'] = 160000
settings['dl_dir'] = r"C:\Downloads"

and then I import the class from every file.

Is there a more suitable way to do it?

Answer 1

I'm probably a little old-school in this regard, but in my latest project, I created a config file in /etc, then created a config module that uses ConfigParser to read it in and make it available, and import that config module wherever I need to read settings.

Answer 2

Your method sounds good to me, and has the advantage that you can easily change the implementation of the settings module, for example to use configuration files or the windows registry, or to provided a read only API.