Environment and Configuration

repoze.bfg behavior can be configured through a combination of operating system environment variables and .ini configuration file application section settings. The meaning of the environment variables and the configuration file settings overlap.

Note

Where a configuration file setting exists with the same meaning as an environment variable, and both are present at application startup time, the environment variable setting takes precedence.

The term “configuration file setting name” refers to a key in the .ini configuration for your application. The configuration file setting names documented in this chapter are reserved for repoze.bfg use. You should not use them to indicate application-specific configuration settings.

Environment Variable Name	Config File Setting Name	Further Information
BFG_RELOAD_TEMPLATES	reload_templates	Reload templates without restart when true See also: Automatically Reloading Templates
BFG_RELOAD_RESOURCES	reload_resources	Don’t cache any resource file data when true See also: Overriding Resources
BFG_DEBUG_AUTHORIZATION	debug_authorization	Print view authorization failure & success info to stderr when true See also: Debugging View Authorization Failures
BFG_DEBUG_NOTFOUND	debug_notfound	Print view-related NotFound debug messages to stderr when true See also: NotFound Errors
BFG_DEBUG_ALL	debug_all	Turns all debug_* settings on.
BFG_RELOAD_ALL	reload_all	Turns all reload_* settings on.
BFG_CONFIGURE_ZCML	configure_zcml	Use the specified filename to load the application registry instead of the filename implied by filename value passed to repoze.bfg.router.make_app. If this is a relative filename, it will be considered relative to the package passed to make_app by the application. It may also take the form of a resource “specification” which names both the package name and a package-relative filename, e.g. dotted.package.name:path/to.zcml. If it is a resource specification, both the package and the filename passed to make_app are overridden with the implied values.

Examples

Let’s presume your configuration file is named MyProject.ini, and there is a section representing your application named [app:main] within the file that represents your repoze.bfg application. The configuration file settings documented in the above “Config File Setting Name” column would go in the [app:main] section. Here’s an example of such a section:

[app:main]
use = egg:MyProject#app
reload_templates = true
debug_authorization = true

You can also use environment variables to accomplish the same purpose for settings documented as such. For example, you might start your repoze.bfg application using the following command line:

BFG_DEBUG_AUTHORIZATION=1 BFG_RELOAD_TEMPLATES=1 bin/paster serve MyProject.ini

If you started your application this way, your repoze.bfg application would behave in the same manner as if you had placed the respective settings in the [app:main] section of your application’s .ini file.

If you want to turn all debug settings (every setting that starts with debug_). on in one fell swoop, you can use BFG_DEBUG_ALL=1 as an environment variable setting or you may use debug_all=true in the config file. Note that this does not effect settings that do not start with debug_* such as reload_templates.

If you want to turn all reload settings (every setting that starts with reload_). on in one fell swoop, you can use BFG_RELOAD_ALL=1 as an environment variable setting or you may use reload_all=true in the config file. Note that this does not effect settings that do not start with reload_* such as debug_notfound.

Understanding the Distinction Between reload_templates and reload_resources

The difference between reload_resources and reload_templates is a bit subtle. Templates are themselves also treated by repoze.bfg as pkg_resources resource files (along with static files and other resources), so the distinction can be confusing. It’s helpful to read Overriding Resources for some context about resources in general.

When reload_templates is true, repoze.bfg` takes advantage of the underlying templating systems’ ability to check for file modifications to an individual template file. When reload_templates is true but reload_resources is not true, the template filename returned by pkg_resources is cached by repoze.bfg on the first request. Subsequent requests for the same template file will return a cached template filename. The underlying templating system checks for modifications to this particular file for every request. Setting reload_templates to True doesn’t effect performance dramatically (although it should still not be used in production because it has some effect).

However, when reload_resources is true, repoze.bfg will not cache the template filename, meaning you can see the effect of changing the content of an overridden resource directory for templates without restarting the server after every change. Subsequent requests for the same template file may return different filenames based on the current state of overridden resource directories. Setting reload_resources to True effects performance dramatically (slowing things down by an order of magnitude for each template rendering) but it’s convenient when moving files around in overridden resource directories. reload_resources makes the system very slow when templates are in use. Never set reload_resources to True on a production system.