Table of Contents
Introduction
When programming in Python it is possible to access the kdb database, changing values of existing keys, adding and deleting keys and a few other things.
Installation
Either build the package or install from a repository.
Alpine Linux
The python bindings package is only available in the testing repository (as of 2019-04-29).
docker run -it alpine:edge /bin/sh
echo "http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing" >> /etc/apk/repositories
# Install elektra and the python bindings
apk update && apk add elektra elektra-python py3-elektra
Under regular alpine, you have to install python3 from the edge repository. If you do not want to add the edge repositories permanently like above, you can do
apk add --repository "http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main" python3
apk add --repository "http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing" elektra elektra-python py3-elektra
Debian buster
docker run -it debian:buster
apt-get update
apt-get install ca-certificates
apt-get install vim gnupg
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys F26BBE02F3C315A19BF1F791A9A25CC1CC83E839
vim /etc/apt/sources.list
Append 'deb https://debs.libelektra.org/buster buster main' to /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get install python3-elektra
Import kdb
In order to being able to use kdb
, you at first need to import kdb
. You need access to a Python object of KDB
. This is accomplished by calling kdb.KDB()
and saving this to a variable because later on this object will be needed for various operations. The easiest way to do this would be:
import kdb
print("Hello world! I have a kdb-instance! :D")
Constructs a class KDB.
Definition: kdb.hpp:43
Keyset
A keyset is basically a list of the keys that lie within the specified range of the database. When creating an empty keyset this range is obviously zero. It is possible to load the whole database into a keyset but in a lot of cases this is not needed and you can specify which keys exactly you need (which I mean with specified range). At first it is necessary to create a new keyset. When simply calling kdb.KeySet()
the keyset is of size 0. There is no restriction to the keyset's size. It is possible to specify a certain (maximum) size for a keyset. To load keys into to keyset from the database you simply call the method get
provided by the kdb-object.
import kdb
print(len(ks))
k.get(ks, 'user')
A keyset holds together a set of keys.
Definition: keyset.hpp:56
It is also possible to iterate as expected over a keyset and use len
, reversed
and copying. The elements of a keyset can be accessed by indexes and a keyset can be sliced. Another way of accessing a key is by the key name (‘keyset_name[’/path/to/keys/key_name']). If a key with the given name does not exist within the keyset, a
KeyError` exception is thrown.
An example that shows how to load an existing keyset and then access every key and value of the loaded keyset:
import kdb
k.get(ks, 'user')
for key in ks:
print("key: {} value: {}".format(key, key.value))
Here an example of how you can easily check if a key exists:
import kdb
namespace = "user:/"
path = '{}/test'.format(namespace)
k.get(ks, namespace)
try:
print("The value of the key {} is {}!".format(ks[path], ks[path]
.value))
except KeyError:
print("The key {} does not exist!".format(path))
Ways of copying a keyset:
import copy, kdb
k.get(ks, 'spec')
ks_deepcopy = copy.deepcopy(ks)
ks_shallowcopy = copy.copy(ks)
Slicing works just like for normal lists in Python. But be careful: Afterwards the result will be a list - not a keyset.
import kdb
k.get(ks, 'system')
ks_copy_by_slicing = ks[:]
start, end = 1, 3
a = ks[start:end]
start = len(ks) - 3
b = ks[start:]
c = ks[:end]
for keyset in [a, b, c]:
for key in keyset:
try:
print('{}: {}'.format(key, key.value))
except UnicodeDecodeError:
pass
print('')
If you have changed anything in the keyset and want those changes to be saved to the database, you need to call set
which is just like get
provided by the kdb-object.
An example of everything up until now could look like this:
import kdb
k.get(ks, '/path/to/keys')
k.set(ks, '/path/to/keys')
If you have a key a very simple way to get its name and value:
import kdb
k.get(ks, 'user')
for key in ks:
print("key name: {}".format(key.name))
print("{0}{1}\n{0}{2}\n".format("key value: ", key.value,
ks.lookup(key).string))
Keys
It is possible to create new keys:
import kdb
new_key =
kdb.Key(
'/user/sw/pk/key_name', kdb.KEY_VALUE,
'key_value')
print("{}: {}".format(new_key, new_key.value))
Key is an essential class that encapsulates key name , value and metainfo .
Definition: key.hpp:86
You can also duplicate a key:
import kdb
key1 =
kdb.Key(
'/user/sw/pk/key_name', kdb.KEY_VALUE,
'key_value')
print("{}: {}".format(new_key, new_key.value))
print("{}: {}".format(key2, key2.value))
An example for working with meta-keys
import kdb
key1 =
kdb.Key(
"user:/key1", kdb.KEY_VALUE,
"some_value")
key1.setMeta("foo", "bar")
key1.setMeta("owner", "manuel")
key1.setMeta("comment/#0", "this is my example key")
for meta in key1.getMeta():
print(" key1.{0} = \"{1}\"".format(meta.name, meta.value))
Keys can be added to a keyset using append
. If the key already exists, the value will be updated. Calling ‘keyset_name[’/path/to/key'] = 'new_valuedoes not work for updating keys already in a keyset. Keys can be removed with
pop,
removeor
cut`
from kdb import KDB, KEY_VALUE, Key, KeySet
class KeySet(KeySet):
def __repr__(self):
"""Return a textual representation of this keyset."""
return '\n'.join(
['{}: {}'.format(key.name, key.value) for key in self])
def key(name, value):
"""Create a new key with the given name and value."""
return Key(name, KEY_VALUE, value)
def describe(keyset, title, newline=True):
return '{}\n{}\n{}{}'.format(title, '=' * len(title), keyset,
'\n' if newline else '')
with KDB() as data:
keyset = KeySet()
data.get(keyset, 'user')
print(describe(keyset, "Initial Keyset"))
new_key = key('user:/sw/pk/key_name', 'key_value')
keyset.append(new_key)
print(describe(keyset, "Add New Key"))
newer_key = key('user:/sw/pk/key_name', 'other_key_value')
keyset.append(newer_key)
print(describe(keyset, "Replace Key", newline=False))