Re: Best practice for config files? (Posting On Python-List Prohibited)

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[email protected]> Fri, 23 May 2025 01:20:53 -0000 (UTC)
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On Thu, 22 May 2025 17:37:09 -0700, Paul Rubin wrote:

> "Michael F. Stemper" <[email protected]> writes:
>>
>> 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?
> 
> You can also use an environment variable.

Remember to follow some reasonable precedence order by which settings 
specified one way can be overridden by those specified another way. The 
most natural one would seem to be (from highest to lowest)

1) command-line option
2) environment variable
3) user-specific config
4) systemwide config
5) hard-coded