[SOLVED] Execution of execfile() in a method with Python

Execution of execfile() in a method with Python

I have a config.py script that has PREAMBLE information. I can use execfile() function to read the contents of the configuration file.

execfile("config.py")
print PREAMBLE
>>> "ABC"

However, when execfile() is called in a method, I have an error.

def a():
    execfile("config.py")
    print PREAMBLE

a()
>>> NameError: "global name 'PREAMBLE' is not defined"

What's wrong and how to solve this issue?

Solution

You need to pass the global dictionary to execfile to achieve the same result:

def a():
    execfile("config.py",globals())
    print PREAMBLE

a()
>>> "some string"

If you don't want to pollute your global namespace, you can pass a local dictionary and use that:

def a():
    config = dict()
    execfile('/tmp/file',config)
    print config['PREAMBLE']

a()
>>> "some string"

For reference, in both cases above, /tmp/file contained PREAMBLE = "some string".