Usage

This document describes basic usage for ConfigMe.

ConfigMe is run using configme command-line utility, uses Jinja2 templates and INI files (using Python’s ConfigParser)

Terms

Role is a collection of configuration files generated for a specific purpose. An example of role names can be: development, stage, production or anything you want.

Configuration Template is file containing template for configuration file. The template may contain variables that will be replaced by values contained in the role’s settings file. Currently only templates are written in Jinja2 templating language. Support for other templating languages is planned.

Role Settings is a file in a INI format containing variables for each of the configuration files

Usage and Command-line Options

To see usage run configme –help

usage: configme [-h] -t TEMPLATES_PATH -s SETTINGS_PATH -o OUTPUT_PATH -r
                ROLE_NAME [-u ROLE_SUFFIX]
                [-b ROLE_VARIABLES [ROLE_VARIABLES ...]]

configme 0.4dev command line utility.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -t TEMPLATES_PATH, --templates-path TEMPLATES_PATH
                        Path to configuration templates folder.
  -s SETTINGS_PATH, --settings-path SETTINGS_PATH
                        Path to settings folder.
  -o OUTPUT_PATH, --output-path OUTPUT_PATH
                        Path to output folder.
  -r ROLE_NAME, --role-name ROLE_NAME
                        Role name.
  -u ROLE_SUFFIX, --role-suffix ROLE_SUFFIX
                        Role suffix.
  -b ROLE_VARIABLES [ROLE_VARIABLES ...],
  --role-variables ROLE_VARIABLES [ROLE_VARIABLES ...]
                        Variables that will interpolated into the settings
                        files.

File Naming Conventions

ConfigMe uses INI files and Python’s ConfigParsers which places some limitations on naming of sections in the INI files. Since these sections names correspond to files located on the filesystems this limitations extends there as well.

Role Names

The name should be have consist of characters considered valid for a file name on the operating system it is run on. It must also be a correct section name in the INI style configme settings file. Additionally it must be at least marginally human readable.

As such due to difficulty maintaining OS specific forbidden characters set, complying with INI file specifications, and keeping readability a set of forbidden characters have chosen.

The naming rules are:

  • name cannot start with a: space
  • name cannot contain: < > : ‘ “ / \ | ? * `

File Names and Paths

The path should be have consist of characters considered valid for a file name on the operating system it is run on. It must also be a correct section name in the INI style settings file. Additionally it must be at least marginally human readable.

As such due to difficulty maintaining OS specific forbidden characters set, complying with INI file specifications, and keeping readability a set of forbidden characters have chosen.

The naming rules are:

  • name cannot start with a: space / ../ ./
  • name cannot contain: /../ /./ < > : ‘ “ | ? * `