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ConfigParser class Dialect

The ConfigParser class is used throughout the project. It assumes and understands a specific dialect, hence it's vital to know it and understand it.

Below are the concepts of that dialect:

  • all configuration elements passed to the ConfigParser class are bundled in a list,

  • all configuration elements are case-sensitive,

  • if an element is str, it is the name of an element,

  • if an element is dict, the key is treated as the name of the element and the value is simply a configuration for this element,

  • the all item is equal to all items from the valid configuration elements,

  • an empty list is the same as the list containing only the all item,

  • excluding elements are supported by prefixing an item with an exclamation mark, for example, '!config' will skip the 'config' element.

    These elements are called not-elements. They are useful when combined with all. For example: a list of: ['all', '!tcp'] or simply ['!tcp'] would take all valid elements except for tcp.

    Having that said:

  • a list containing only not-elements is treated as if 'all' would have been specified explicitly,

  • order does not matter,

  • you can override elements implicitly specified with all. This means that:

    • when:

      • the following list is passed:

        [
            'all', 
            { 'content_version': {
                'version': '1234-5678'}
            }
        ]

      • content_version is a valid element

    • then:

      • all is expanded to all valid elements but
      • content_version is skipped during expansion (since an explicit definition for it is already available).