Configuration

SpotterBase uses the ConfigArgParse library for managing the configuration. It basically allows to load command line parameters from a configuration file.

Introduction

We will create a simple example script to see the configuration in action. The command line tools in SpotterBase use the same configuration mechanism. Here is our example script greeting.py:

import spotterbase.utils.config_loader as config_loader

greeting = config_loader.ConfigString('--greeting',
        description='the greeting', default='hi')
config_loader.auto()
print(f'Your greeting is {greeting.value}')

Let us try it out:

$ python3 greeting.py
Your greeting is hi
$ python3 greeting.py --greating hello
Your greeting is hello

We can also create a configuration file greeting.config with the following content:

greeting='good morning'

and then use it with

$ python3 greeting.py --config greeting.config
Your greeting is good morning

The config loader automatically looks for configuration files with the name spotterbase.conf or .spotterbase.conf in the current working directory and in the home directory.

If you import a SpotterBase library, it can automatically add configuration parameters. For example, if you import spotterbase.data.zipfilecache in the beginning of the example script and run python3 greeting.py --help, you will see an option for specifying how many zip files can be opened simultaneously.