Edit configuration file through python

Question

I need to edit a configuration file through python and i tried searching on stackoverflow and google and they don\'t cover my situation, since i need to replace lines in the fil

Answer 1

If the file is in java.util.Properties format then you could use pyjavaproperties:

from pyjavaproperties import Properties

p = Properties()
p.load(open('input.properties'))

for name, value in [('ENABLEPRINTER', 'y'), ('PRINTERLIST', 'PRNT3')]:
    p[name] = value
p.store(open('output.properties', 'w'))

It is not very robust, but various fixes for it could benefit people who come next.

---

To replace multiple times in a short string:

for old, new in [('ENABLEPRINTER', 'y'), ('PRINTERLIST', 'PRNT3')]:
    some_string = some_string.replace(old, new)

To replace variables names in a configuration file (using configobj module):

import configobj

conf = configobj.ConfigObj('test.conf')

for old, new in [('ENABLEPRINTER', 'y'), ('PRINTERLIST', 'PRNT3')]:
    conf[new] = conf[old]
    del conf[old]
conf.write()

If by replace('ENABLEPRINTER', 'y') you mean assign y to the ENABLEPRINTER variable then:

import configobj

ENCODING='utf-8'
conf = configobj.ConfigObj('test.conf', raise_errors=True,
    file_error=True,           # don't create file if it doesn't exist
    encoding=ENCODING,         # used to read/write file
    default_encoding=ENCODING) # str -> unicode internally (useful on Python2.x)

conf.update(dict(ENABLEPRINTER='y', PRINTERLIST='PRNT3'))
conf.write()

---

It seems configobj is not compatible with:

name = '.'something

You could quote it:

name = "'.'something"

Or:

name = '.something'

Or

name = .something

---

conf.update() does something similar to:

for name, value in [('ENABLEPRINTER', 'y'), ('PRINTERLIST', 'PRNT3')]:
    conf[name] = value