Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need default values for my dataclass schema?

If you use the default implementation for the EyConf class you do need to provide default values for your dataclass schema. They are used in the generated yaml file. If you overwrite the default_yaml method you can provide your own default values and therefore do not need to provide them in the schema.

Example:

from eyconf import EYConf

@dataclass
class ConfigSchema:
    foo: int


class MyConfing(EYConf):
    def __init__(self, config_file):
        super().__init__(ConfigSchema, config_file)

    def default_yaml(self):
        return """
        My configuration schema
        foo: 42
        """

Why can I not just provide a path to the constructor?

This is a design choice: To enable our cli to find your configuration (which comes with great benefits), the path needs to be attached to a class — being attached to an instance is not sufficient. This prevents a simpler pattern like EYConf(ConfigSchema, path="/path/to/config.yaml").

We also do not want to create multiple ways to do the same thing. Having both a path parameter and a way to override get_file would add unnecessary complexity to the class interface.