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Best practice for config files?

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From	"Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Subject	Best practice for config files?
Date	Thu, 22 May 2025 14:59:28 -0500
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I recently wrote a program to do some record-keeping for me. I found
myself hard-coding a bunch of different values into it. This didn't
seem right, so I made my first use of configparser.ConfigParser().
Created the configuration file and everything is working fine.

However, I wrote it based on the assumption that the program is
running in the directory where the config file is stored, and has
a specific name. I started having some second thoughts here.

I thought about putting the location of the configuration file in
the configuration file, but that seemed like a non-starter.[1]

Should I specify the location of the config file with a command-line
option, or is requiring the program to be executed in the directory
containing the configuration file considered acceptable practice?



[1] See Tegan Jovanka in _Castrovalva_ for more on this idea.
-- 
Michael F. Stemper
If it isn't running programs and it isn't fusing atoms, it's just bending space.

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Best practice for config files? "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> - 2025-05-22 14:59 -0500
  Re: Best practice for config files? ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2025-05-22 20:27 +0000
    Re: Best practice for config files? ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2025-05-22 20:33 +0000
    Re: Best practice for config files? ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) - 2025-05-23 19:18 +0000
      Re: Best practice for config files? (Posting On Python-List Prohibited) Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-23 22:22 +0000
        Re: Best practice for config files? (Posting On Python-List Prohibited) rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-05-24 03:00 +0000
    Re: Best practice for config files? "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> - 2025-05-24 10:05 -0500
  Re: Best practice for config files? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2025-05-22 17:37 -0700
    Re: Best practice for config files? (Posting On Python-List Prohibited) Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-05-23 01:20 +0000
  Re: Best practice for config files? Chuck Rhode <CRhode@LacusVeris.com> - 2025-05-23 08:35 -0500
  Re: Best practice for config files? Jason H <jason_hindle@yahoo.com> - 2025-05-24 11:46 +0000

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