Why another template recipe?

Both iw.recipe.template and inquant.recipe.textfile claim to do the same thing. I have found them to be undocumented and too buggy for real world use, and neither are in a public repository where I could fix them. In addition this implementation leverages the buildout variable substitution code, making it a lot simpler.

Simple creation of a file out of a template

Lets create a minimal buildout.cfg file:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = template
... offline = true
...
... [template]
... recipe = collective.recipe.template
... input = template.in
... output = template
... ''')

We create a template file:

>>> write('template.in',
... '''#
... My template knows about buildout path:
...   ${buildout:directory}
... ''')

Now we can run buildout:

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Installing template.

The template was indeed created:

>>> cat('template')
#
My template knows about buildout path:
.../sample-buildout

The variable buildout:directory was also substituted by a path.

Creating a template in a variable path

Lets create a minimal buildout.cfg file. This time the output should happen in a variable path:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = template
... offline = true
...
... [template]
... recipe = collective.recipe.template
... input = template.in
... output = ${buildout:parts-directory}/template
... ''')

Now we can run buildout:

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling template.
Installing template.

The template was indeed created:

>>> cat('parts', 'template')
#
My template knows about buildout path:
.../sample-buildout

Creating missing paths

If an output file should be created in a path that does not yet exist, then the missing items will be created for us:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = template
... offline = true
...
... [template]
... recipe = collective.recipe.template
... input = template.in
... output = ${buildout:parts-directory}/etc/template
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling template.
Installing template.

Also creation of several subdirectories is supported:

>>> write('buildout.cfg',
... '''
... [buildout]
... parts = template
... offline = true
...
... [template]
... recipe = collective.recipe.template
... input = template.in
... output = ${buildout:parts-directory}/foo/bar/template
... ''')

>>> print system(join('bin', 'buildout')),
Uninstalling template.
Installing template.

>>> cat('parts', 'foo', 'bar', 'template')
#
My template knows about buildout path:
.../sample-buildout

When changes happen to the output path, then the old path is removed on uninstall. Therefore the etc/ directory created above has vanished now:

>>> ls('parts')
d  foo

1.3 - 2009-04-28

• Add support for output path creation. You can do:

  output = /path/to/target
  

  and intermediate path items will be created if they do not exist. [ulif]

• Add tests. [ulif]

1.2 - 2008-12-09

(By accident the 1.1 release was marked as 1.2. So in fact they are the same.)

1.1 - 2008-12-09

• Correct handling of multiple variables in a line. Bugreport and patch from Roman Susi. [wichert]

1.0 - 2008-10-16

• Copy the mode of the input file to the output file. This makes it possible to create executable scripts. [wichert]
• Add missing link in README. [wichert]

1.0rc2 - 2008-07-04

• Add a MANIFEST.in with instructions to include docs/, otherwise the package will not install. [wichert]

1.0rc1 - 2008-07-04

• Initial release. [wichert]