Configurable: The useless Go configuration package that doesn't do anything

100% modules-free.

Configurable is a Go library for managing program configuration information, no matter whether it comes from command line arguments, configuration files, environment variables, or anywhere else.

The most noteworthy feature of configurable is that it doesn't do anything. It contains no functionality for examining or parsing command line arguments. It doesn't do anything with environment variables. And it certainly can't read configuration files.

The purpose of configurable is to act as an integration nexus, essentially a matchmaker between application configuration and specific configuration interfaces. This creates the important feature that your application's configuration can be expressed completely independently of how that configuration is loaded.

Configurable doesn't implement any configuration loading logic because it strives to be a neutral intermediary, which abstracts the interface between configurable items and configurators.

In order to demonstrate the configurable way of doing things, a simple flag parsing package is included. Use of this package is completely optional. If it doesn't meet your needs, you can throw it out and use your own — but still consume and configure all registered Configurables.

Included example packages demonstrate how an application or library might register various configurable items, and then expose them for configuration via the command line, configuration files or other means.

Import as: gopkg.in/hlandau/configurable.v1

Configurable

A Configurable is an object that represents some configurable thing. It is obliged only to implement the following interface:

type Configurable interface{}

Configurable is designed around interface upgrades. If you want to actually do anything with a Configurable, you must attempt to cast it to an interface with the methods you need. A Configurable is not obliged to implement any interface besides Configurable, but almost always will.

Here are some common interfaces implemented by Configurables, in descending order of importance:

• CfSetValue(interface{}) error — attempt to set the Configurable to a value.

• CfName() string — get the Configurable's name.

• CfDefaultValue() interface{} — get the Configurable's default value.

• CfGetValue() interface{} — get the Configurable's value.

• CfChildren() []Configurable — return the children of this Configurable, if any.

• CfUsageSummaryLine() string — get a one-line usage summary suitable for use as command line usage information.

• String() string — the standard Go String() interface.

• CfGetPriority() Priority — retrieves the priority of the value, used to determine whether it should be overridden.

• CfSetPriority(priority Priority) — sets the priority of the value.

• CfEnvVarName() string — if a non-empty string, an environment variable that maps to this Configurable.

Configurable-specific methods should always be prefixed with Cf so that it is clear that they are intended for consumption by Configurable consumers.

A command line parsing adapter should typically be able to make do with a Configurable which implements just CfSetValue and CfName.

The Standard Bindings

For a package which makes it easy to register and consume configurables, see the easyconfig package.

Of course, nothing requires you to use the easyconfig package. You are free to eschew it and make your own.

Background Reading

• On Nexuses
• See also: Measurable

Licence

© 2015 Hugo Landau <hlandau@devever.net>

Licenced under the licence with SHA256 hash fd80a26fbb3f644af1fa994134446702932968519797227e07a1368dea80f0bc, a copy of which can be found here.