Specification files

Specification files provide a specification for each option in a configuration file. This specification allows:

the get method to automatically return the value as the correct type
the get method to return a default value if an optional value was not given in the configuration file
the configuration file(s) to be validated against the specification to ensure all required options are provided and no extra options are given.

For example, a specification file might look like the following:

[logging]
basedir       : type=str
level         : type=str, default=DEBUG
rotate        : type=bool, default=YES
max_version   : type=int, default=9
max_width     : type=int, default=90

[level1]
wavelengths   : type=List[float], default=[]
wavetypes     : type=List[str], default="[1074, 1079, 1083]"

The configuration file that uses this specification might be like:

[logging]
basedir       : /Users/mgalloy/data
level         : DEBUG
rotate        : NO
max_version   : 3

[level1]
wavelengths   : [1074.7, 1079.8, 1083.0]

The possible attributes for an option are listed below.

required: whether the option is required; allowed values (case-insensitive) for required are “True”, “YES”, or “1” and “False”, “NO”, or “0” for not required
type: Python type: str (default), int, float, bool/boolean or List[] of one of the scalar types i.e., List[int]
default: default value if the option is not specified

Specification files for epoch configuration files use only the DEFAULT section whereas specification files for standard configuration files mirror the same sections as their configuration files.