===========================
 Docutils Runtime Settings
===========================

:Author: David Goodger
:Contact: docutils-develop@lists.sourceforge.net
:Date: $Date$
:Revision: $Revision$
:Copyright: This document has been placed in the public domain.

.. contents::


Introduction
============

Docutils runtime settings are assembled from several sources:
component settings specifications, application settings
specifications, configuration files, and command-line options.
Docutils overlays default and explicitly specified values from these
sources such that settings behave the way we want and expect them to
behave.

To understand how Docutils deals with runtime settings, the attributes
and parameters involved must first be understood.  Begin with the the
docstrings of the attributes of the ``docutils.SettingsSpec`` base
class (in the ``docutils/__init__.py`` module):

* ``settings_spec``
* ``settings_defaults``
* ``settings_default_overrides``
* ``relative_path_settings``
* ``config_section``
* ``config_section_dependencies``

Next, several _`convenience function parameters` are also significant
(described in the ``docutils.core.publish_programmatically`` function
docstring):

* The ``settings`` parameter is a runtime settings
  (``docutils.frontend.Values``) object which, if present, is assumed
  to be complete (it must include all runtime settings).  Also, if the
  ``settings`` parameter is present, no further runtime settings
  processing is done.  In other words, the other parameters, described
  below, will have no effect.

* ``settings_spec``, a `docutils.SettingsSpec` subclass or object, is
  treated like a fourth component (after the Parser, Reader, and
  Writer).  In other words, it's the settings specification for the
  "Application" itself.

* ``settings_overrides`` is a dictionary which will override the
  defaults of the components (from their settings specs).

* ``config_section`` specifies the name of an application-specific
  configuration file section.


.. _command-line tools:

Runtime Settings Processing for Command-Line Tools
==================================================

Following along with the actual code is recommended.  The
``docutils/__init__.py``, ``docutils/core.py``, and
``docutils.frontend.py`` modules are described.

1. A command-line front-end tool imports and calls
   ``docutils.core.publish_cmdline``.  The relevant `convenience
   function parameters`_ are described above.

2. ``docutils.core.publish_cmdline`` initializes a
   ``docutils.core.Publisher`` object, then calls its ``publish``
   method.

3. The ``docutils.core.Publisher`` object's ``publish`` method checks
   its ``settings`` attribute to see if it's defined.  If it is, no
   further runtime settings processing is done.

   If ``settings`` is not defined, ``self.process_command_line`` is
   called with the following relevant arguments:

   * ``settings_spec``
   * ``config_section``
   * ``settings_overrides`` (in the form of excess keyword
     arguments, collected in the ``defaults`` parameter)

4. ``self.process_command_line`` calls ``self.setup_option_parser``,
   passing ``settings_spec``, ``config_section``, and ``defaults``.

5. ``self.setup_option_parser`` checks its ``config_section``
   parameter; if defined, it adds that config file section to
   ``settings_spec`` (or to a new, empty ``docutils.SettingsSpec``
   object), replacing anything defined earlier.  (See `Docutils
   Configuration Files`_ for details.)  Then it instantiates a new
   ``docutils.frontend.OptionParser`` object, passing the following
   relevant arguments:

   * ``components``: A tuple of ``docutils.SettingsSpec`` objects,
     ``(self.parser, self.reader, self.writer, settings_spec)``
   * ``defaults`` (originally from ``settings_overrides``)

6. The ``docutils.frontend.OptionParser`` object's ``__init__`` method
   calls ``self.populate_from_components`` with ``self.components``,
   which consists of ``self`` prepended to the ``components`` tuple it
   received.  ``self`` (``docutils.frontend.OptionParser``) defines
   general Docutils settings.

7. In ``self.populate_from_components``, for each component passed,
   ``component.settings_spec`` is processed and
   ``component.settings_defaults`` is applied.  Then, for each
   component, ``component.settings_default_overrides`` is applied.
   This two-loop process ensures that
   ``component.settings_default_overrides`` can override the default
   settings of any other component.

8. Back in ``docutils.frontend.OptionParser.__init__``, the
   ``defaults`` parameter (derived from the ``settings_overrides``
   parameter of ``docutils.core.Publisher.publish``) is overlaid over
   ``self.defaults``.  So ``settings_overrides`` has priority over all
   ``SettingsSpec`` data.

9. Next, ``docutils.frontend.OptionParser.__init__`` checks if
   configuration files are enabled (its ``read_config_files``
   parameter is true, and ``self.defaults['_disable_config']`` is
   false).  If they are enabled (and normally, they are),
   ``self.get_standard_config_settings`` is called.  This reads the
   `docutils configuration files`_, and returns a dictionary of
   settings.  This is then overlaid on ``self.defaults``.  So
   configuration file settings have priority over all software-defined
   defaults.

10. Back in the ``docutils.core.Publisher`` object,
    ``self.setup_option_parser`` returns the ``option_parser`` object
    to its caller, ``self.process_command_line``.

11. ``self.process_command_line`` calls ``option_parser.parse_args``,
    which parses all command line options and returns a
    ``docutils.frontend.Values`` object.  This is assigned to the
    ``docutils.core.Publisher`` object's ``self.settings``.  So
    command-line options have priority over configuration file
    settings.

    When ``option_parser.parse_args`` is called, the source and
    destination command-line arguments are also parsed, and assigned
    to the ``_source`` and ``_destination`` attributes of what becomes
    the ``docutils.core.Publisher`` object's ``self.settings``.

12. From ``docutils.core.Publisher.publish``, ``self.set_io`` is
    called with no arguments.  If either ``self.source`` or
    ``self.destination`` are not set, the corresponding
    ``self.set_source`` and ``self.set_destination`` are called,
    effectively with no arguments.

13. ``self.set_source`` checks for a ``source_path`` parameter, and if
    there is none (which is the case for command-line use), it is
    taken from ``self.settings._source``.  ``self.source`` is set by
    instantiating a ``self.source_class`` object.  For command-line
    front-end tools, the default ``self.source_class`` is used,
    ``docutils.io.FileInput``.

14. ``self.set_destination`` does the same job for the destination
    that ``self.set_source`` does for the source (the default
    ``self.destination_class`` is ``docutils.io.FileOutput``).

.. _Docutils Configuration Files: ../user/config.html


Runtime Settings Processing From Applications
=============================================

Applications process runtime settings in a different way than
`command-line tools`_ do.  Instead of calling ``publish_cmdline``, the
application calls one of ``publish_file``, ``publish_string``, or
``publish_parts``.  These in turn call ``publish_programmatically``,
which implements a generic programmatic interface.  Although an
application may also call ``publish_programmatically`` directly, it is
not recommended (if it does seem to be necessary, please write to the
Docutils-develop_ mailing list).

``publish_programmatically`` accepts the same `convenience function
parameters`_ as ``publish_cmdline``.  Where things differ is that
programmatic use does no command-line processing.  Instead of calling
``docutils.Publisher.process_command_line`` (as ``publish_cmdline``
does, via ``docutils.Publisher.publish``),
``docutils.Publisher.process_programmatic_settings`` is called to set
up the runtime settings.

.. copy & modify the list from command-line tools?


.. _Docutils-develop: ../user/mailing-lists.html#docutils-develop
