--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/configoptionparser/__init__.py	Thu May 20 08:47:35 2010 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+from optparse import OptionParser
+from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
+
+### duplicate/extend ConfigParser functions as we can't use them directly :(
+
+def getlist(string, separator=','):
+  """returns a list from a string given a separator"""
+  string = string.strip()
+  if not string:
+    return []
+  return [i.strip() for i in string.split(separator)]
+
+def getboolean(string):
+  return string.lower() == 'true'
+
+
+class Undefined(object):
+  def __init__(self, default):
+    self.default=default
+
+class ConfigOptionParser(OptionParser):
+  def __init__(self, defaults_section='DEFAULTS', dict_section=None,
+               variables=None, **kwargs):
+    """
+    - defaults_section: section of .ini to look for configuration variables
+    - dict_section: section of .ini to return as a dictionary
+    - variables: attr on returned options to parse dictionary from command line
+    """
+    self.defaults_section = defaults_section
+    self.dict_section = dict_section
+    self.variables = variables
+    if self.dict_section and not self.variables:
+      self.variables = dict_section
+    OptionParser.__init__(self, **kwargs)
+    OptionParser.add_option(self,
+                            '-c', '--config', dest='config', action='append',
+                            help='ini file to read from')
+
+  def add_option(self, *args, **kwargs):
+    kwargs['default'] = Undefined(kwargs.get('default'))
+    OptionParser.add_option(self, *args, **kwargs)
+
+  def parse_args(self, args=None, values=None):
+    options, args = OptionParser.parse_args(self, args, values)
+
+    # get defaults from the configuration parser
+    defaults = {}
+    config = ConfigParser()
+    if options.config:
+      config.read(options.config)
+      if self.defaults_section in config.sections():
+        defaults = dict(config.items(self.defaults_section, raw=True))
+
+    # option dict
+    option_dict = dict([(i.dest, i) for i in self.option_list
+                        if i.dest not in ('config', 'help')])
+
+    # conversion functions for .ini data
+    conversions = { 'store_true': getboolean,
+                    'store_false': getboolean,
+                    'append': getlist }
+
+    # fill in the defaults not set from the command line
+    for key, value in options.__dict__.items():
+      
+      # don't override command line arguments! they win!
+      if isinstance(value, Undefined):
+
+        if key in defaults and key in option_dict:
+          # fill in options from .ini files
+
+          option = option_dict[key]
+          
+          # converstion function
+          function = conversions.get(option.action, lambda x: x)
+          
+          setattr(options, key, function(defaults[key]))
+        else:
+          # set from option defaults
+          setattr(options, key, value.default)
+
+    # get variables from dict_section and command line arguments
+    # TODO: could do this first then interpolate the config file from these
+    variables = {}
+    if self.dict_section in config.sections():
+      variables.update(dict(config.items(self.dict_section, raw=True)))
+    if self.variables:
+      variables.update(dict([i.split('=',1) for i in args if '=' in i]))
+      args = [i for i in args if '=' not in i]
+      setattr(options, self.variables, variables)
+    
+    return (options, args)
+