How to share a variable globally in python program?

Question

I'm working on a program which has a config. I need to use a different config for the tests and the normal running of the program.

I manage all the software and tests using a manage.py script and all the tests are under python manage.py test ... (eg: python manage.py test all , python manage.py test db , ...)

To choose the config I did in the __init__.py of the config:

is_testing = sys.argv[1] == 'test'
if is_testing:
    from app.config.own import TestConfig as Config
else:
    from app.config.own import Config

and after I import the config from this file.

But sometime the test runner takes the first place in the argv so the test is in argv[2] or sometimes I run the tests by launching the script directly and not the manage.py .

My question is by which ways can I share a variable across the full codebase?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You could completely extract determining config from your config class and just have the script accept a CLI arg of the config path to execute. This would allow any config to be used.

python manage.py test --config=import.path.to.settings

Then you would have to map config to loadding the actual module. Django does this exact thing with their settings file, you could consult that for implementation details

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Also I'd def recommend using argsparse , which would allow you to not have to deal with sys.argv[1] it provides type enforcement, documenation generation, positional and keyword arg support