715216 - Python's old formatting standard is incompatible with .ini files

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Socorro :: General, task)

Description

[[DEACTIVATED] Adrian Gaudebert]

While testing the recent generic_app.py Lars created, we ran into a compatibility problem with .ini files and Python's string formatting. 

The problem is that '%' characters are interpreted by .ini files, and we use those characters in logger configuration for example. Lars suggests that we switch to the newer formatting standard of Python, using {var} instead of %(var)s. 

An other solution would be to not use .ini files in Socorro.

Comment 1

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

(In reply to Adrian Gaudebert [:adrian] from comment #0)
> An other solution would be to not use .ini files in Socorro.

Since I am probably the only one pushing for .ini files, I will say that I am using .ini as a proxy for "something readable/writable by a non-programmer".

For example, we expect sysadmins and DBAs to be able to directly modify Socorro config files, to change things like passwords and hostnames. This was problematic in the past when we asked them to edit our python config files directly, since they had to be aware of python's syntax rules which is not a given. We switched to using bash include files, so they are simply "key=value" but this is rather inflexible and requires modification of startup scripts and so on so it's not ideal.

I think JSON would be ok but it seems a bit noisy compared to a more traditional "config file".

Perhaps YAML would be a better middle ground?

Comment 2

[[DEACTIVATED] Adrian Gaudebert]

I think we should use whatever IT is most comfortable with. Us developers can deal with any of those file formats, and one the goals of ConfigMan was also to make IT's life easier. 

CC'ing Jason for opinions.

Comment 3

[Jason Thomas [:jason]]

Any of these file formats would work for us as long as we have documentation and/or a sample configuration for reference. If not, we would most likely bug you with questions or issues :)

Comment 4

[[DEACTIVATED] Adrian Gaudebert]

So we have started using .ini files all over the place, and it seems we haven't run into this problem. I'm going to mark this as invalid, and hope it is indeed.