Services/Sync/Server/GlobalConfFile

All services on a Sync server share a common configuration. Here's a format proposal for a unique configuration file that can be used to group this configuration.

Syntax

The configuration file is a ini-based file. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file for more details.) Variables name can be assigned values, and grouped into sections. A line that starts with "#" is commented out. Empty lines are also removed.

Example:

 [section1]
 # comment
 name = value
 name2 = "other value"
 [section2]
 foo = bar

Ini readers in Python, PHP and other languages understand this syntax. Although, there are subtle differences in the way they interpret values and in particular if/how they convert them.

Values conversion

Here are a set of rules for converting values:

- If value is quoted with " chars, it's a string. This notation is useful to include "=" characters in the value. In case the value contains a " character, it must be escaped with a "\" character.

- When the value is composed of digits and optionally prefixed by "-", it's tentatively converted to an integer or a long depending on the language. If the number exceeds the range available in the language, it's left as a string.

- If the value is "true" or "false", it's converted to a boolean, or 0 and 1 when the language does not have a boolean type.

- A value can be an environment variable : "${VAR}" is replaced by the value of VAR if found in the environment. If the variable is not found, an error must be raised.

- A value can contains multiple lines. When read, lines are converted into a sequence of values. Each new line for a multiple lines value must start with a least one space or tab character.

Examples:

 [section1]
 # comment
 a_flag = True
 a_number = 1
 a_string = "other=value"
 another_string = other value
 a_list = one
          two
          three
 user = ${USERNAME}

Extending a file

An INI file can extend another file. For this, a "DEFAULT" section must contain an "extends" variable that can point to one or several INI files which will be merged to the current file by adding new sections and values.

If the file pointed in "extends" contains section/variable names that already exist in the original file, they will not override existing ones.

file_one.ini:

 [section1]
 name2 = "other value"
 [section2]
 foo = baz
 bas = bar

file_two.ini:

 [DEFAULT]
 extends = file_one.ini    
 [section2]
 foo = bar

Result:

 [section1]
 name2 = "other value"
 [section2]
 foo = bar
 bas = bar

To point several files, the multi-line notation can be used:

 [DEFAULT]
 extends = file_one.ini
           file_two.ini

When several files are provided, they are processed sequentially. So if the first one has a value that is also present in the second, the second one will be ignored. This means that the configuration goes from the most specialized to the most common.

Sync INI files syntax

Here is an example of a full Sync file.

[captcha]
use = True
public_key = 6Le8OLwSAAAAAK-wkjNPBtHD4Iv50moNFANIalJL
private_key = 6Le8OLwSAAAAAEKoqfc-DmoF4HNswD7RNdGwxRij
use_ssl = False

[storage]
backend = sql
sqluri = mysql://sync:sync@localhost/sync
standard_collections = False
use_quota = True
quota_size = 5120
pool_size = 100
pool_recycle = 3600

[auth]
backend = sql
sqluri = mysql://sync:sync@localhost/sync
pool_size = 100
pool_recycle = 3600

[smtp]
host = localhost
port = 25
sender = weave@mozilla.com

[cef]
use = True
file = syslog
vendor = mozilla
version = 0
device_version = 1.3
product = weave

[nodes]
node1 = host:db
node2 = host:db

XXX

Notes

XX