What is the intended use of the DEFAULT section in config files used by ConfigParser?
I found an explanation here by googling for "windows ini" "default section". Summary: whatever you put in the [DEFAULT] section gets propagated to every other section. Using the example from the linked website, let's say I have a config file called test1.ini:
[host 1]lh_server=192.168.0.1vh_hosts = PloneSite1:8080lh_root = PloneSite1[host 2]lh_server=192.168.0.1vh_hosts = PloneSite2:8080lh_root = PloneSite2
I can read this using ConfigParser:
>>> cp = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()>>> cp.read('test1.ini')['test1.ini']>>> cp.get('host 1', 'lh_server')'192.168.0.1'
But I notice that lh_server is the same in both sections; and, indeed, I realise that it will be the same for most hosts I might add. So I can do this, as test2.ini:
[DEFAULT]lh_server=192.168.0.1[host 1]vh_root = PloneSite1lh_root = PloneSite1[host 2]vh_root = PloneSite2lh_root = PloneSite2
Despite the sections not having lh_server keys, I can still access them:
>>> cp.read('test2.ini')['test2.ini']>>> cp.get('host 1', 'lh_server')'192.168.0.1'
Read the linked page for a further example of using variable substitution in the DEFAULT section to simplify the INI file even more.