How to read properties file in python
For a configuration file with no section headers, surrounded by [] - you will find the ConfigParser.NoSectionError exception is thrown. There are workarounds to this by inserting a 'fake' section header - as demonstrated in this answer.
In the event that the file is simple, as mentioned in pcalcao's answer, you can perform some string manipulation to extract the values.
Here is a code snippet which returns a dictionary of key-value pairs for each of the elements in your config file.
separator = "="
keys = {}
# I named your file conf and stored it
# in the same directory as the script
with open('conf') as f:
for line in f:
if separator in line:
# Find the name and value by splitting the string
name, value = line.split(separator, 1)
# Assign key value pair to dict
# strip() removes white space from the ends of strings
keys[name.strip()] = value.strip()
print(keys)
I like the current answer. AND... I feel like there is a cleaner way to do it in the "Real World". Using the section header feature is a MUST if you are doing a project of any size or scale, particularly in the realm of "multiple" environments. I wanted to put it in here with well formatted copy-able code, using a robust real world example. This is running in Ubuntu 14, but works cross platform:
Real World Simple Example
An 'Environment-based' configuration
Setup Example (Terminal):
cd ~/my/cool/project touch local.properties touch environ.properties ls -la ~/my/cool/project -rwx------ 1 www-data www-data 0 Jan 24 23:37 local.properties -rwx------ 1 www-data www-data 0 Jan 24 23:37 environ.properties
Set good permissions
>> chmod 644 local.properties
>> chmod 644 env.properties
>> ls -la
-rwxr--r-- 1 www-data www-data 0 Jan 24 23:37 local.properties
-rwxr--r-- 1 www-data www-data 0 Jan 24 23:37 environ.properties
Edit your properties files.
FILE 1: local.properties
This is YOUR properties file, local to your machine and workspace, and contains sensitive data, don't push to version control!!!
[global]
relPath=local/path/to/images
filefilters=(.jpg)|(.png)
[dev.mysql]
dbPwd=localpwd
dbUser=localrootuser
[prod.mysql]
dbPwd=5tR0ngpwD!@#
dbUser=serverRootUser
[branch]
# change this to point the script at a specific environment
env=dev
FILE 2: environ.properties
This properties file is shared by everybody, changes are pushed to version control
#----------------------------------------------------
# Dev Environment
#----------------------------------------------------
[dev.mysql]
dbUrl=localhost
dbName=db
[dev.ftp]
site=localhost
uploaddir=http://localhost/www/public/images
[dev.cdn]
url=http://localhost/cdn/www/images
#----------------------------------------------------
# Prod Environment
#----------------------------------------------------
[prod.mysql]
dbUrl=http://yoursite.com:80
dbName=db
[prod.ftp]
site=ftp.yoursite.com:22
uploaddir=/www/public/
[prod.cdn]
url=http://s3.amazon.com/your/images/
Python File: readCfg.py
This script is a re-usable snippet to load a list of configuration files import ConfigParser import os
# a simple function to read an array of configuration files into a config object
def read_config(cfg_files):
if(cfg_files != None):
config = ConfigParser.RawConfigParser()
# merges all files into a single config
for i, cfg_file in enumerate(cfg_files):
if(os.path.exists(cfg_file)):
config.read(cfg_file)
return config
Python File: yourCoolProgram.py
This program will import the file above, and call the 'read_config' method
from readCfg import read_config
#merge all into one config dictionary
config = read_config(['local.properties', 'environ.properties'])
if(config == None):
return
# get the current branch (from local.properties)
env = config.get('branch','env')
# proceed to point everything at the 'branched' resources
dbUrl = config.get(env+'.mysql','dbUrl')
dbUser = config.get(env+'.mysql','dbUser')
dbPwd = config.get(env+'.mysql','dbPwd')
dbName = config.get(env+'.mysql','dbName')
# global values
relPath = config.get('global','relPath')
filefilterList = config.get('global','filefilters').split('|')
print "files are: ", fileFilterList, "relative dir is: ", relPath
print "branch is: ", env, " sensitive data: ", dbUser, dbPwd
Conclusion
Given the above configuration, you can now have a script which completely changes environments by changing the [branch]env value in 'local.properties'. And this is all based on good configuration principles! Yaay!
If you need to read all values from a section in properties file in a simple manner:
Your config.properties file layout :
[SECTION_NAME]
key1 = value1
key2 = value2
You code:
import configparser
config = configparser.RawConfigParser()
config.read('path_to_config.properties file')
details_dict = dict(config.items('SECTION_NAME'))
This will give you a dictionary where keys are same as in config file and their corresponding values.
details_dict is :
{'key1':'value1', 'key2':'value2'}
Now to get key1's value :
details_dict['key1']
Putting it all in a method which reads that section from config file only once(the first time the method is called during a program run).
def get_config_dict():
if not hasattr(get_config_dict, 'config_dict'):
get_config_dict.config_dict = dict(config.items('SECTION_NAME'))
return get_config_dict.config_dict
Now call the above function and get the required key's value :
config_details = get_config_dict()
key_1_value = config_details['key1']
-------------------------------------------------------------
Extending the approach mentioned above, reading section by section automatically and then accessing by section name followed by key name.
def get_config_section():
if not hasattr(get_config_section, 'section_dict'):
get_config_section.section_dict = dict()
for section in config.sections():
get_config_section.section_dict[section] =
dict(config.items(section))
return get_config_section.section_dict
To access:
config_dict = get_config_section()
port = config_dict['DB']['port']
(here 'DB' is a section name in config file and 'port' is a key under section 'DB'.)