Repository navigation
ConfigParser accepts delimiters in key name which corrupts .ini file #128843
Description
Bug report
Bug description:
Since very first commit 26d513c 15 years ago, configparser.rst has stated:
https://docs.python.org/3.13/library/configparser.html#customizing-parser-behaviour
Delimiters are substrings that delimit keys from values within a section. The first occurrence of a delimiting substring on a line is considered a delimiter. This means values (BUT NOT KEYS) can contain substrings that are in the delimiters".
(emphasis mine)
But as of today's 3.13, nothing stops the user from using delimiters in keys, writing them to a file and finally reading back something completely different. Reproduction:
import configparser
cfg2file = configparser.ConfigParser()
cfg2file['section1'] = {}
# This should fail. It "succeeds".
cfg2file['section1']['one=two'] = 'three'
# Write ambiguous 'one = two = three' line in the .ini file
with open('example.ini', 'w') as configfile:
cfg2file.write(configfile)
# Read the file back. First equal sign wins.
file2cfg = configparser.ConfigParser()
file2cfg.read('example.ini')
for key in file2cfg['section1']:
print(key + ' is: ' + file2cfg['section1'][key] )
# True
assert cfg2file['section1']['one=two'] == 'three'
# False!
assert file2cfg['section1']['one=two'] == 'three'
# This is True instead
assert file2cfg['section1']['one'] == 'two = three'This happens when someone enters west config key=val ... instead of west config key val ...:
CPython versions tested on:
3.13
Operating systems tested on:
Linux
cc: @jaraco
Activity
vadmium commentedon Jan 15, 2025
Issue #65697 is about keys that look like comments, but also mentions keys with an equals sign
Issue #69909 is also similar, but focusses on add_section
jaraco commentedon Jan 15, 2025
I'm going to close this as a duplicate of #65697.