[Python-Dev] New miniconf module

[David Hopwood]

Sylvain Fourmanoit wrote:
> I wrote a data persistence module called miniconf, aimed at making 
> easy to create and safely retrieve configuration info from external, 
> human-readable sources using Python syntax. I feel it would eventually 
> make a nice addition to the standard library.

>From a security point of view, this is a great improvement on the existing
pickle, marshal, and shelve modules. Those modules could not be safely
imported from restricted code.

miniconf, OTOH, appears to have an interface compatible with capability
security. (I have not checked that the compiler.ast module used in its
implementation is safe.) However:

+Limitations
+===========
+
+miniconf has a few limitations one should be aware of:
[...]
+- It is not preemptiple: concurrent calls to dump() or load() will
+  have unpredictable results and must be avoided.

This limitation should be fixed before the module is added to the standard
library, IMHO.

-- 
David Hopwood <david.nospam.hopwood at blueyonder.co.uk>