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Groups > comp.lang.python > #94973

Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration

From Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au>
Subject Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration
Date 2015-08-05 05:59 +1000
References <87k2teq9tb.fsf@Equus.decebal.nl> <663ad259-48e0-4eec-a946-7cd03805ddb1@googlegroups.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Message-ID <mailman.1216.1438718366.3674.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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marco.nawijn@colosso.nl writes:

> Why not use Python files itself as configuration files?

Because configuration data will be user-editable. (If it's not
user-editable, that is itself a poor design choice.)

If you allow executable code to be user-edited, that opens your program
to arbitrary injection of executable code. Your program becomes wide
open for security exploits, whether through malicious or accidental
bugs, and simple human error can lead to arbitrary-scope damage to the
user's system.

On another dimension, configuration files specifying the behaviour of
the system are much more useful if their format is easily parsed and
re-worked by tools the user chooses.

Your program should not be the only tool (and Python should not be the
only language) that can read and/or write the configuration data with
straightfoward data manipulation.

So a complex full-blown programming language like Python is a poor
choice for configuration data for that reason, too.

Much better to choose a tightly-defined, limited-scope configuration
data format that you can be confident any user cannot employ to run
arbitrary code.

-- 
 \     “For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use |
  `\              being anything else.” —Winston Churchill, 1954-11-09 |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney

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Thread

Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Cecil Westerhof <Cecil@decebal.nl> - 2015-08-02 12:11 +0200
  Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-02 20:49 +1000
  Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2015-08-02 21:54 +1000
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Cecil Westerhof <Cecil@decebal.nl> - 2015-08-02 18:51 +0200
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Lele Gaifax <lele@metapensiero.it> - 2015-08-02 22:02 +0200
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Cameron Simpson <cs@zip.com.au> - 2015-08-03 08:49 +1000
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2015-08-03 11:16 +1000
  Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-08-02 16:12 +0100
  Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2015-08-02 16:11 -0500
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Dan Sommers <dan@tombstonezero.net> - 2015-08-03 04:02 +0000
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-08-03 23:38 +1000
        Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-03 23:46 +1000
        Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2015-08-03 15:37 +0100
  Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration marco.nawijn@colosso.nl - 2015-08-04 07:53 -0700
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Irmen de Jong <irmen.NOSPAM@xs4all.nl> - 2015-08-04 19:06 +0200
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration marco.nawijn@colosso.nl - 2015-08-04 11:37 -0700
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2015-08-05 05:59 +1000
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2015-08-05 18:32 +1000
        Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 20:01 +1000
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com> - 2015-08-04 19:32 -0600
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2015-08-05 14:00 +0000
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration random832@fastmail.us - 2015-08-04 22:44 -0400
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Michael Torrie <torriem@gmail.com> - 2015-08-04 22:48 -0600
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-04 21:55 -0700
        Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Lele Gaifax <lele@metapensiero.it> - 2015-08-05 08:54 +0200
  Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2015-08-05 08:18 -0500
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 06:37 -0700
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2015-08-05 15:55 -0500
        Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> - 2015-08-06 00:47 +0300
          Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2015-08-05 18:43 -0500
          Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-06 10:07 +1000
            Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2015-08-06 17:33 +1000
              Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-06 17:51 +1000
        Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 18:01 -0700
          Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 18:06 -0700
  Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 06:46 -0700
    Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Steven D'Aprano <steve@pearwood.info> - 2015-08-06 00:08 +1000
      Re: Most Pythonic way to store (small) configuration Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 07:25 -0700

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