Obnam → blog → 2025 → Obnam 3: configuration file
  1. Goal
  2. Plan
  3. Notes
  4. Summary
  5. Comments?

Goal

The obnam invocations in the test suite are becoming quite long, because everything is expressed using command line options. This is about to get worse once I implement using credentials for opening a client chunk. I want to keep the options, but I also want to have a configuration file for convenience.

Plan

  • I will use my own clingwrap crate too configuration file support. In addition, I'll use the directories-next crate to determine the default location.
  • Add a reading a default configuration file, if it exists. Use the XDG directory specification for the location.
  • Add a global option --config to specify additional configuration files to read.
  • Add setting the backup repository location via the configuration file.
  • Change the subplot to use the configuration file in all cases.

Notes

  • Ran test suite to make sure it still passes. It did.
  • Added a configuration file module (src/config.rs) that, for now, only allows empty configuration files.
  • Made sure every leaf command gets access to the configuration.
  • Added a subcommand obnam config.
  • Added the field store to the configuration. Changed the subplot to use it.
  • Tidied the branch history, pushed to create a patch, waited for CI to succeed, merged.

Summary

This was a simple goals, but it sets up a way to simplify repeated invocations by using configuration files, so it's an important goal. I'm glad I got it done, given how warm it is today.

Comments?

If you have feedback on this development session, please use the following fediverse thread: https://toot.liw.fi/@liw/114845618243244184.