setup.cfg - a solution to python config file soup? A howto guide.

Sick of config file soup cluttering up your repo? Me too. However there is a way to at least clean it up for many python tools.


Some of the tools you might use and the config files they support...

• flake8 - .flake8, setup.cfg, tox.ini, and config/flake8 on Windows
• pytest - pytest.ini, tox.ini, setup.cfg
• coverage.py - .coveragerc, setup.cfg, tox.ini
• mypy - setup.cfg, mypy.ini
• tox - tox.ini

 Can mypy use setup.cfg as well?

OK, you've convinced me. -- Guido

With that mypy now also supports setup.cfg, and we can all remove many more config files.

The rules for precedence are easy:

1. read --config-file option - if it's incorrect, exit
2. read [tool].ini - if correct, stop
3. read setup.cfg

 

How to config with setup.cfg?

Here's a list to the configuration documentation for setup.cfg.

• coverage config
• pytest config
• flake8 config
• mypy config
• behave

What does a setup.cfg look like now?

Here's an example setup.cfg for you with various tools configured. (note these are nonsensical example configs, not what I suggest you use!)

## http://coverage.readthedocs.io/en/latest/config.html
#[coverage:run]
#timid = True

## http://pytest.org/latest/customize.html#adding-default-options
# [tool:pytest]
# addopts=-v --cov pygameweb pygameweb/ tests/

## http://mypy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/config_file.html
#[mypy]
#python_version = 2.7

#[flake8]
#max-line-length = 120
#max-complexity = 10
#exclude = build,dist,docs/conf.py,somepackage/migrations,*.egg-info

## Run with: pylint --rcfile=setup.cfg somepackage
#[pylint]
#disable = C0103,C0111
#ignore = migrations
#ignore-docstrings = yes
#output-format = colorized