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Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2013 17:09:15 +1100
Subject: Re: Config & ConfigParser
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:40606

On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 3:54 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:19:53 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 3:07 PM, Chuck <galois271@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I guess my question was more what is a config.file & why/how do I use
>>> one. Thanks
>>
>> In its simplest form, a config file is one way to change a program's
>> behaviour without editing the code.
>
> I don't think that's quite right, because your code has to be changed to
> read the data from the configuration file in the first place. It doesn't
> just happen by magic.

Sure, but once you've made your code read from the config file, you
can then edit the file only and it changes the program's actions.

Of course, that's an *incredibly* broad description; amongst its
coverage are such diverse elements as Apache reading an HTML file to
serve, CPython reading a .py file, and the ROM BIOS reading a boot
sector and jumping to it... but based on the OP's question I couldn't
really be any more specific.

ChrisA