Decouple helps you to organize your settings so that you can change parameters without having to redeploy your app.
It also makes it easy for you to:
- store parameters in ini or .env files;
- define comprehensive default values;
- properly convert values to the correct data type;
- have only one configuration module to rule all your instances.
It was originally designed for Django, but became an independent generic tool for separating settings from code.
Summary
The settings files in web frameworks store many different kinds of parameters:
- Locale and i18n;
- Middlewares and Installed Apps;
- Resource handles to the database, Memcached, and other backing services;
- Credentials to external services such as Amazon S3 or Twitter;
- Per-deploy values such as the canonical hostname for the instance.
The first 2 are project settings and the last 3 are instance settings.
You should be able to change instance settings without redeploying your app.
Envvars works, but since os.environ
only returns strings, it's tricky.
Let's say you have an envvar DEBUG=False
. If you run:
if os.environ['DEBUG']:
print True
else:
print False
It will print True, because os.environ['DEBUG']
returns the string "False"
. Since it's a non-empty string, it will be evaluated as True.
Decouple provides a solution that doesn't look like a workaround: config('DEBUG', cast=bool)
.
Install:
pip install python-decouple
Then use it on your settings.py
.
Import the
config
object:from decouple import config
Retrieve the configuration parameters:
SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY') DEBUG = config('DEBUG', default=False, cast=bool) EMAIL_HOST = config('EMAIL_HOST', default='localhost') EMAIL_PORT = config('EMAIL_PORT', default=25, cast=int)
Decouple's default encoding is UTF-8.
But you can specify your preferred encoding.
Since config is lazy and only opens the configuration file when it's first needed, you have the chance to change its encoding right after import.
from decouple import config
config.encoding = 'cp1251'
SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
If you wish to fall back to your system's default encoding use:
import locale
from decouple import config
config.encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding(False)
SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
Decouple supports both .ini and .env files.
Simply create a settings.ini
next to your configuration module in the form:
[settings]
DEBUG=True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG=%(DEBUG)s
SECRET_KEY=ARANDOMSECRETKEY
DATABASE_URL=mysql://myuser:mypassword@myhost/mydatabase
PERCENTILE=90%%
#COMMENTED=42
Note: Since ConfigParser
supports string interpolation, to represent the character %
you need to escape it as %%
.
Simply create a .env
text file in your repository's root directory in the form:
DEBUG=True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG=True
SECRET_KEY=ARANDOMSECRETKEY
DATABASE_URL=mysql://myuser:mypassword@myhost/mydatabase
PERCENTILE=90%
#COMMENTED=42
Given that I have a .env
file in my repository's root directory, here is a snippet of my settings.py
.
I also recommend using pathlib and dj-database-url.
# coding: utf-8
from decouple import config
from unipath import Path
from dj_database_url import parse as db_url
BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).parent
DEBUG = config('DEBUG', default=False, cast=bool)
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG
DATABASES = {
'default': config(
'DATABASE_URL',
default='sqlite:///' + BASE_DIR.child('db.sqlite3'),
cast=db_url
)
}
TIME_ZONE = 'America/Sao_Paulo'
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True
SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
EMAIL_HOST = config('EMAIL_HOST', default='localhost')
EMAIL_PORT = config('EMAIL_PORT', default=25, cast=int)
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = config('EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD', default='')
EMAIL_HOST_USER = config('EMAIL_HOST_USER', default='')
EMAIL_USE_TLS = config('EMAIL_USE_TLS', default=False, cast=bool)
# ...
In the above example, all configuration parameters except SECRET_KEY = config('SECRET_KEY')
have a default value in case it does not exist in the .env
file.
If SECRET_KEY
is not present in the .env
, decouple will raise an UndefinedValueError
.
This fail fast policy helps you avoid chasing misbehaviours when you eventually forget a parameter.
Sometimes you may want to change a parameter value without having to edit the .ini
or .env
files.
Since version 3.0, decouple respects the unix way. Therefore environment variables have precedence over config files.
To override a config parameter you can simply do:
DEBUG=True python manage.py
Decouple always searches for Options in this order:
- Environment variables;
- Repository: ini or .env file;
- Default argument passed to config.
There are 4 classes doing the magic:
Config
Coordinates all the configuration retrieval.
RepositoryIni
Can read values from
os.environ
and ini files, in that order.Note: Since version 3.0 decouple respects unix precedence of environment variables over config files.
RepositoryEnv
Can read values from
os.environ
and.env
files.Note: Since version 3.0 decouple respects unix precedence of environment variables over config files.
AutoConfig
This is a lazy
Config
factory that detects which configuration repository you're using.It recursively searches up your configuration module path looking for a
settings.ini
or a.env
file.Optionally, it accepts
search_path
argument to explicitly define where the search starts.
The config object is an instance of AutoConfig
that instantiates a Config
with the proper Repository
on the first time it is used.
By default, all values returned by decouple
are strings
, after all they are read from text files
or the envvars
.
However, your Python code may expect some other value type, for example:
- Django's
DEBUG
expects a booleanTrue
orFalse
. - Django's
EMAIL_PORT
expects aninteger
. - Django's
ALLOWED_HOSTS
expects alist
of hostnames. - Django's
SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER
expects atuple
with two elements, the name of the header to look for and the required value.
To meet this need, the config
function accepts a cast
argument which receives any callable, that will be used to transform the string value into something else.
Let's see some examples for the above mentioned cases:
>>> os.environ['DEBUG'] = 'False'
>>> config('DEBUG', cast=bool)
False
>>> os.environ['EMAIL_PORT'] = '42'
>>> config('EMAIL_PORT', cast=int)
42
>>> os.environ['ALLOWED_HOSTS'] = '.localhost, .herokuapp.com'
>>> config('ALLOWED_HOSTS', cast=lambda v: [s.strip() for s in v.split(',')])
['.localhost', '.herokuapp.com']
>>> os.environ['SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER'] = 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO, https'
>>> config('SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER', cast=Csv(post_process=tuple))
('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
As you can see, cast
is very flexible. But the last example got a bit complex.
To address the complexity of the last example, Decouple comes with an extensible Csv helper.
Let's improve the last example:
>>> from decouple import Csv
>>> os.environ['ALLOWED_HOSTS'] = '.localhost, .herokuapp.com'
>>> config('ALLOWED_HOSTS', cast=Csv())
['.localhost', '.herokuapp.com']
You can also have a default value that must be a string to be processed by Csv.
>>> from decouple import Csv
>>> config('ALLOWED_HOSTS', default='127.0.0.1', cast=Csv())
['127.0.0.1']
You can also parametrize the Csv Helper to return other types of data.
>>> os.environ['LIST_OF_INTEGERS'] = '1,2,3,4,5'
>>> config('LIST_OF_INTEGERS', cast=Csv(int))
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
>>> os.environ['COMPLEX_STRING'] = '%virtual_env%\t *important stuff*\t trailing spaces '
>>> csv = Csv(cast=lambda s: s.upper(), delimiter='\t', strip=' %*')
>>> csv(os.environ['COMPLEX_STRING'])
['VIRTUAL_ENV', 'IMPORTANT STUFF', 'TRAILING SPACES']
By default Csv returns a list
, but you can get a tuple
or whatever you want using the post_process
argument:
>>> os.environ['SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER'] = 'HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO, https'
>>> config('SECURE_PROXY_SSL_HEADER', cast=Csv(post_process=tuple))
('HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO', 'https')
Allows for cast and validation based on a list of choices. For example:
>>> from decouple import config, Choices
>>> os.environ['CONNECTION_TYPE'] = 'usb'
>>> config('CONNECTION_TYPE', cast=Choices(['eth', 'usb', 'bluetooth']))
'usb'
>>> os.environ['CONNECTION_TYPE'] = 'serial'
>>> config('CONNECTION_TYPE', cast=Choices(['eth', 'usb', 'bluetooth']))
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: Value not in list: 'serial'; valid values are ['eth', 'usb', 'bluetooth']
You can also parametrize Choices helper to cast to another type:
>>> os.environ['SOME_NUMBER'] = '42'
>>> config('SOME_NUMBER', cast=Choices([7, 14, 42], cast=int))
42
You can also use a Django-like choices tuple:
>>> USB = 'usb'
>>> ETH = 'eth'
>>> BLUETOOTH = 'bluetooth'
>>>
>>> CONNECTION_OPTIONS = (
... (USB, 'USB'),
... (ETH, 'Ethernet'),
... (BLUETOOTH, 'Bluetooth'),)
...
>>> os.environ['CONNECTION_TYPE'] = BLUETOOTH
>>> config('CONNECTION_TYPE', cast=Choices(choices=CONNECTION_OPTIONS))
'bluetooth'
Your contribution is welcome.
Setup your development environment:
git clone git@github.com:henriquebastos/python-decouple.git
cd python-decouple
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
tox
Decouple supports both Python 2.7 and 3.6. Make sure you have both installed.
I use pyenv to manage multiple Python versions and I described my workspace setup on this article: The definitive guide to setup my Python workspace
You can submit pull requests and issues for discussion. However I only consider merging tested code.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Henrique Bastos <henrique at bastos dot net>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.