Question

I am trying to tail the files in a config file using python on mac

I am able to get the values from the config file but not able to open up child processes for the same

a sample config file has

[section1]

host_prefix = true

timestamp_prefix = true

[section2]

host = localhost

port = 1463

pids = /var/run/harvester

[files]

apache.access = /var/log/apache2/access.log

apache.errors = /var/log/apache2/errors.log

mail = /var/log/mail.log

mysql.log = /var/log/mysql.log

I am opening up the config file and trying to get the filepaths and I need to tail them in new child processes in separate terminals

    #! /bin/env python
import StringIO
import os
import re
from multiprocessing import Process
COMMENT_CHAR = '#'
OPTION_CHAR =  '='

def parse_config(filename):
    options = {}
    f = open(filename)
    for line in f:
        if COMMENT_CHAR in line:
           line, comment = line.split(COMMENT_CHAR, 1)
        if OPTION_CHAR in line:
            option, value = line.split(OPTION_CHAR, 1)
            option = option.strip()
            value = value.strip()
            options[option] = value
    f.close()
    return options

try:
    f = open("/etc/harvest.conf", 'r')
    print 'found'
    options = parse_config('/etc/harvest.conf')
    print options.values()
    os.system('tail -f options.values')
except:
        try: 
            f = open("/usr/local/etc/harvest.conf", 'r')
            print 'found'
            options = parse_config('/usr/local/etc/harvest.conf')
            print options.values()
            os.system('tail -f options.values')
        except IOError:
            print 'cannot find file'

the above code gives me all the values from the config file that includes ‘localhost’,’1463′
but I want only the paths from the file and need to tail them in separate child processes

Answer 1

Try ConfigParser. It can work with INI files.