How to use the configparser module

Motivation

Sometimes you need a configuration for your project to adapt to different environments.
The easiest way is to alter some variables / constants in your program code.
But Hold your horses. This isn’t always a good idea. What if you package your code into an executable with e.g. PyInstaller?
Maybe the user of your tool needs to be able top do some configuration as well.

INI files

The INI file goes way back to MS-DOS. INI is short for initialization and offers text-based key-value pairs for properties and sections for organizing properties.

Minimum Runnable Solution

ini file

Create a textfile e.g. backup_config.ini with the following content

[BACKUP]
ServerAddress = smb://192.168.0.101

[BACKUP] is the name of the section
ServerAddress is a property

configparser module

import configparser

def test_configparser():
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()
    config.read('./backup_config.ini')
    assert config.sections() == ['BACKUP']
    assert config['BACKUP']['ServerAddress'] == "smb://192.168.0.101"

Reading Bolean Values

[PLATFORMS]
Creatronix: no
YouTube: yes

def test_configparser_boolean():
    config = configparser.ConfigParser()
    config.read('./metadata.ini')
    assert config.getboolean("PLATFORMS", "YouTube") is True
    assert config.getboolean("PLATFORMS", "Creatronix") is False