---
id: fhconfparser
version: "2024.1"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: dormant
---

# fhconfparser — Provides a config language independent way to read a config file.

License: permissive · Maintenance: dormant · Downloads: 365.6K/mo

## What it is and what it does

FHConfParser provides a single API to read configuration files regardless of whether they are written in INI, TOML, or JSON format. Instead of writing separate parsing logic for each format, you pass a file path and get back the parsed configuration data in a consistent structure. This is useful for tools that need to support multiple config formats—like linters or configuration management utilities—without duplicating parsing code.

The package wraps format-specific libraries (notably tomli for TOML) and attrs for data handling, keeping the dependency footprint small. It's marked as Production/Stable and supports Python 3.8 through 3.12, though development has slowed significantly.

Use it for:

- Build a linting tool that accepts configuration in INI, TOML, or JSON without duplicating parser logic.
- Create a CLI application that auto-detects and reads config files in any of the three supported formats.
- Migrate a project's configuration from one format to another by reading with a single parser.
- Write a configuration validation layer that works uniformly across multiple file formats.
- Simplify testing by loading test fixtures from config files in whichever format is most convenient.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Reads configuration files in INI, TOML, or JSON format through a single unified interface, abstracting away format-specific syntax differences.

Yes, if you need to support multiple config formats without writing format-specific code. The low install friction and permissive license make it a safe choice. However, be aware that maintenance is dormant—last release was 933 days ago—so consider whether you need active support or can tolerate a stable, unchanging library.

## Install

pip install fhconfparser
uv add fhconfparser
poetry add fhconfparser

## Installing fhconfparser

Before you install: Low friction install with only two lightweight runtime dependencies (attrs and tomli). Dormant maintenance status—last release was 933 days ago, though the repository remains active with a recent commit on 2024-12-01.

License in practice: MIT license is permissive; you can use, modify, and distribute this package with minimal restrictions, making it suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart:

pip install fhconfparser

from fhconfparser import FHConfParser

parser = FHConfParser('config.toml')
config_data = parser.read()

Requires Python 3.8 or later; package is tested on Python 3.8 and 3.11.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the unified interface handles nested structures and type conversions consistently across all three formats.
- Performance characteristics when parsing large configuration files.
- Error handling and reporting quality for malformed config files in each supported format.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: dormant
- Downloads: 365.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

config file parser multiple formats, unified ini toml json reader, format-agnostic configuration loader, multi-format config abstraction, ini toml json config parser, language-independent config reader, config-parsing, multi-format

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