Viper is heading towards v2 and we would love to hear what you would like to see in it. Share your thoughts here: https://forms.gle/R6faU74qPRPAzchZ9
Thank you!
Go configuration with fangs!
Many Go projects are built using Viper including:
- Hugo
- EMC RexRay
- Imgur’s Incus
- Nanobox/Nanopack
- Docker Notary
- BloomApi
- doctl
- Clairctl
- Mercure
- Meshery
- Bearer
- Coder
- Vitess
go get github.com/spf13/viperNote: Viper uses Go Modules to manage dependencies.
Viper is a complete configuration solution for Go applications including 12-Factor apps. It is designed to work within an application, and can handle all types of configuration needs and formats. It supports:
- setting defaults
- reading from JSON, TOML, YAML, HCL, envfile and Java properties config files
- live watching and re-reading of config files (optional)
- reading from environment variables
- reading from remote config systems (etcd or Consul), and watching changes
- reading from command line flags
- reading from buffer
- setting explicit values
Viper can be thought of as a registry for all of your applications configuration needs.
When building a modern application, you don’t want to worry about configuration file formats; you want to focus on building awesome software. Viper is here to help with that.
Viper does the following for you:
- Find, load, and unmarshal a configuration file in JSON, TOML, YAML, HCL, INI, envfile or Java properties formats.
- Provide a mechanism to set default values for your different configuration options.
- Provide a mechanism to set override values for options specified through command line flags.
- Provide an alias system to easily rename parameters without breaking existing code.
- Make it easy to tell the difference between when a user has provided a command line or config file which is the same as the default.
Viper uses the following precedence order. Each item takes precedence over the item below it:
- explicit call to
Set - flag
- env
- config
- key/value store
- default
Important: Viper configuration keys are case insensitive. There are ongoing discussions about making that optional.
A good configuration system will support default values. A default value is not required for a key, but it’s useful in the event that a key hasn't been set via config file, environment variable, remote configuration or flag.
Examples:
viper.SetDefault("ContentDir", "content")
viper.SetDefault("LayoutDir", "layouts")
viper.SetDefault("Taxonomies", map[string]string{"tag": "tags", "category": "categories"})Viper requires minimal configuration so it knows where to look for config files. Viper supports JSON, TOML, YAML, HCL, INI, envfile and Java Properties files. Viper can search multiple paths, but currently a single Viper instance only supports a single configuration file. Viper does not default to any configuration search paths leaving defaults decision to an application.
Here is an example of how to use Viper to search for and read a configuration file. None of the specific paths are required, but at least one path should be provided where a configuration file is expected.
viper.SetConfigName("config") // name of config file (without extension)
viper.SetConfigType("yaml") // REQUIRED if the config file does not have the extension in the name
viper.AddConfigPath("/etc/appname/") // path to look for the config file in
viper.AddConfigPath("$HOME/.appname") // call multiple times to add many search paths
viper.AddConfigPath(".") // optionally look for config in the working directory
err := viper.ReadInConfig() // Find and read the config file
if err != nil { // Handle errors reading the config file
panic(fmt.Errorf("fatal error config file: %w", err))
}You can handle the specific case where no config file is found like this:
if err := viper.ReadInConfig(); err != nil {
if _, ok := err.(viper.ConfigFileNotFoundError); ok {
// Config file not found; ignore error if desired
} else {
// Config file was found but another error was produced
}
}
// Config file found and successfully parsedNOTE [since 1.6]: You can also have a file without an extension and specify the format programmatically. For those configuration files that lie in the home of the user without any extension like .bashrc
Reading from config files is useful, but at times you want to store all modifications made at run time. For that, a bunch of commands are available, each with its own purpose:
- WriteConfig - writes the current viper configuration to the predefined path, if exists. Errors if no predefined path. Will overwrite the current config file, if it exists.
- SafeWriteConfig - writes the current viper configuration to the predefined path. Errors if no predefined path. Will not overwrite the current config file, if it exists.
- WriteConfigAs - writes the current viper configuration to the given filepath. Will overwrite the given file, if it exists.
- SafeWriteConfigAs - writes the current viper configuration to the given filepath. Will not overwrite the given file, if it exists.
As a rule of the thumb, everything marked with safe won't overwrite any file, but just create if not existent, whilst the default behavior is to create or truncate.
A small examples section:
viper.WriteConfig() // writes current config to predefined path set by 'viper.AddConfigPath()' and 'viper.SetConfigName'
viper.SafeWriteConfig()
viper.WriteConfigAs("/path/to/my/.config")
viper.SafeWriteConfigAs("/path/to/my/.config") // will error since it has already been written
viper.SafeWriteConfigAs("/path/to/my/.other_config")Viper supports the ability to have your application live read a config file while running.
Gone are the days of needing to restart a server to have a config take effect, viper powered applications can read an update to a config file while running and not miss a beat.
Simply tell the viper instance to watchConfig. Optionally you can provide a function for Viper to run each time a change occurs.
Make sure you add all of the configPaths prior to calling WatchConfig()
viper.OnConfigChange(func(e fsnotify.Event) {
fmt.Println("Config file changed:", e.Name)
})
viper.WatchConfig()Viper predefines many configuration sources such as files, environment variables, flags, and remote K/V store, but you are not bound to them. You can also implement your own required configuration source and feed it to viper.
viper.SetConfigType("yaml") // or viper.SetConfigType("YAML")
// any approach to require this configuration into your program.
var yamlExample = []byte(`
Hacker: true
name: steve
hobbies:
- skateboarding
- snowboarding
- go
clothing:
jacket: leather
trousers: denim
age: 35
eyes : brown
beard: true
`)
viper.ReadConfig(bytes.NewBuffer(yamlExample))
viper.Get("name") // this would be "steve"These could be from a command line flag, or from your own application logic.
viper.Set("Verbose", true)
viper.Set("LogFile", LogFile)
viper.Set("host.port", 5899) // set subsetAliases permit a single value to be referenced by multiple keys
viper.RegisterAlias("loud", "Verbose")
viper.Set("verbose", true) // same result as next line
viper.Set("loud", true) // same result as prior line
viper.GetBool("loud") // true
viper.GetBool("verbose") // trueViper has full support for environment variables. This enables 12 factor applications out of the box. There are five methods that exist to aid working with ENV:
AutomaticEnv()BindEnv(string...) : errorSetEnvPrefix(string)SetEnvKeyReplacer(string...) *strings.ReplacerAllowEmptyEnv(bool)
When working with ENV variables, it’s important to recognize that Viper treats ENV variables as case sensitive.
Viper provides a mechanism to try to ensure that ENV variables are unique. By
using SetEnvPrefix, you can tell Viper to use a prefix while reading from
the environment variables. Both BindEnv and AutomaticEnv will use this
prefix.
BindEnv takes one or more parameters. The first parameter is the key name, the
rest are the name of the environment variables to bind to this key. If more than
one are provided, they will take precedence in the specified order. The name of
the environment variable is case sensitive. If the ENV variable name is not provided, then
Viper will automatically assume that the ENV variable matches the following format: prefix + "_" + the key name in ALL CAPS. When you explicitly provide the ENV variable name (the second parameter),
it does not automatically add the prefix. For example if the second parameter is "id",
Viper will look for the ENV variable "ID".
One important thing to recognize when working with ENV variables is that the
value will be read each time it is accessed. Viper does not fix the value when
the BindEnv is called.
AutomaticEnv is a powerful helper especially when combined with
SetEnvPrefix. When called, Viper will check for an environment variable any
time a viper.Get request is made. It will apply the following rules. It will
check for an environment variable with a name matching the key uppercased and
prefixed with the EnvPrefix if set.
SetEnvKeyReplacer allows you to use a strings.Replacer object to rewrite Env
keys to an extent. This is useful if you want to use - or something in your
Get() calls, but want your environmental variables to use _ delimiters. An
example of using it can be found in viper_test.go.
Alternatively, you can use EnvKeyReplacer with NewWithOptions factory function.
Unlike SetEnvKeyReplacer, it accepts a StringReplacer interface allowing you to write custom string replacing logic.
By default empty environment variables are considered unset and will fall back to
the next configuration source. To treat empty environment variables as set, use
the AllowEmptyEnv method.
SetEnvPrefix("spf") // will be uppercased automatically
BindEnv("id")
os.Setenv("SPF_ID", "13") // typically done outside of the app
id := Get("id") // 13Viper has the ability to bind to flags. Specifically, Viper supports Pflags
as used in the Cobra library.
Like BindEnv, the value is not set when the binding method is called, but when
it is accessed. This means you can bind as early as you want, even in an
init() function.
For individual flags, the BindPFlag() method provides this functionality.
Example:
serverCmd.Flags().Int("port", 1138, "Port to run Application server on")
viper.BindPFlag("port", serverCmd.Flags().Lookup("port"))You can also bind an existing set of pflags (pflag.FlagSet):
Example:
pflag.Int("flagname", 1234, "help message for flagname")
pflag.Parse()
viper.BindPFlags(pflag.CommandLine)
i := viper.GetInt("flagname") // retrieve values from viper instead of pflagThe use of pflag in Viper does not preclude the use of other packages that use the flag package from the standard library. The pflag package can handle the flags defined for the flag package by importing these flags. This is accomplished by a calling a convenience function provided by the pflag package called AddGoFlagSet().
Example:
package main
import (
"flag"
"github.com/spf13/pflag"
)
func main() {
// using standard library "flag" package
flag.Int("flagname", 1234, "help message for flagname")
pflag.CommandLine.AddGoFlagSet(flag.CommandLine)
pflag.Parse()
viper.BindPFlags(pflag.CommandLine)
i := viper.GetInt("flagname") // retrieve value from viper
// ...
}Viper provides two Go interfaces to bind other flag systems if you don’t use Pflags.
FlagValue represents a single flag. This is a very simple example on how to implement this interface:
type myFlag struct {}
func (f myFlag) HasChanged() bool { return false }
func (f myFlag) Name() string { return "my-flag-name" }
func (f myFlag) ValueString() string { return "my-flag-value" }
func (f myFlag) ValueType() string { return "string" }Once your flag implements this interface, you can simply tell Viper to bind it:
viper.BindFlagValue("my-flag-name", myFlag{})FlagValueSet represents a group of flags. This is a very simple example on how to implement this interface:
type myFlagSet struct {
flags []myFlag
}
func (f myFlagSet) VisitAll(fn func(FlagValue)) {
for _, flag := range flags {
fn(flag)
}
}Once your flag set implements this interface, you can simply tell Viper to bind it:
fSet := myFlagSet{
flags: []myFlag{myFlag{}, myFlag{}},
}
viper.BindFlagValues("my-flags", fSet)To enable remote support in Viper, do a blank import of the viper/remote
package:
import _ "github.com/spf13/viper/remote"
Viper will read a config string (as JSON, TOML, YAML, HCL or envfile) retrieved from a path in a Key/Value store such as etcd or Consul. These values take precedence over default values, but are overridden by configuration values retrieved from disk, flags, or environment variables.
Viper supports multiple hosts. To use, pass a list of endpoints separated by ;. For example http://127.0.0.1:4001;http://127.0.0.1:4002.
Viper uses crypt to retrieve configuration from the K/V store, which means that you can store your configuration values encrypted and have them automatically decrypted if you have the correct gpg keyring. Encryption is optional.
You can use remote configuration in conjunction with local configuration, or independently of it.
crypt has a command-line helper that you can use to put configurations in your
K/V store. crypt defaults to etcd on http://127.0.0.1:4001.
$ go get github.com/sagikazarmark/crypt/bin/crypt
$ crypt set -plaintext /config/hugo.json /Users/hugo/settings/config.jsonConfirm that your value was set:
$ crypt get -plaintext /config/hugo.jsonSee the crypt documentation for examples of how to set encrypted values, or
how to use Consul.
viper.AddRemoteProvider("etcd", "http://127.0.0.1:4001","/config/hugo.json")
viper.SetConfigType("json") // because there is no file extension in a stream of bytes, supported extensions are "json", "toml", "yaml", "yml", "properties", "props", "prop", "env", "dotenv"
err := viper.ReadRemoteConfig()viper.AddRemoteProvider("etcd3", "http://127.0.0.1:4001","/config/hugo.json")
viper.SetConfigType("json") // because there is no file extension in a stream of bytes, supported extensions are "json", "toml", "yaml", "yml", "properties", "props", "prop", "env", "dotenv"
err := viper.ReadRemoteConfig()You need to set a key to Consul key/value storage with JSON value containing your desired config.
For example, create a Consul key/value store key MY_CONSUL_KEY with value:
{
"port": 8080,
"hostname": "myhostname.com"
}viper.AddRemoteProvider("consul", "localhost:8500", "MY_CONSUL_KEY")
viper.SetConfigType("json") // Need to explicitly set this to json
err := viper.ReadRemoteConfig()
fmt.Println(viper.Get("port")) // 8080
fmt.Println(viper.Get("hostname")) // myhostname.comviper.AddRemoteProvider("firestore", "google-cloud-project-id", "collection/document")
viper.SetConfigType("json") // Config's format: "json", "toml", "yaml", "yml"
err := viper.ReadRemoteConfig()Of course, you're allowed to use SecureRemoteProvider also
viper.AddRemoteProvider("nats", "nats://127.0.0.1:4222", "myapp.config")
viper.SetConfigType("json")
err := viper.ReadRemoteConfig()viper.AddSecureRemoteProvider("etcd","http://127.0.0.1:4001","/config/hugo.json","/etc/secrets/mykeyring.gpg")
viper.SetConfigType("json") // because there is no file extension in a stream of bytes, supported extensions are "json", "toml", "yaml", "yml", "properties", "props", "prop", "env", "dotenv"
err := viper.ReadRemoteConfig()// alternatively, you can create a new viper instance.
var runtime_viper = viper.New()
runtime_viper.AddRemoteProvider("etcd", "http://127.0.0.1:4001", "/config/hugo.yml")
runtime_viper.SetConfigType("yaml") // because there is no file extension in a stream of bytes, supported extensions are "json", "toml", "yaml", "yml", "properties", "props", "prop", "env", "dotenv"
// read from remote config the first time.
err := runtime_viper.ReadRemoteConfig()
// unmarshal config
runtime_viper.Unmarshal(&runtime_conf)
// open a goroutine to watch remote changes forever
go func(){
for {
time.Sleep(time.Second * 5) // delay after each request
// currently, only tested with etcd support
err := runtime_viper.WatchRemoteConfig()
if err != nil {
log.Errorf("unable to read remote config: %v", err)
continue
}
// unmarshal new config into our runtime config struct. you can also use channel
// to implement a signal to notify the system of the changes
runtime_viper.Unmarshal(&runtime_conf)
}
}()In Viper, there are a few ways to get a value depending on the value’s type. The following functions and methods exist:
Get(key string) : anyGetBool(key string) : boolGetFloat64(key string) : float64GetInt(key string) : intGetIntSlice(key string) : []intGetString(key string) : stringGetStringMap(key string) : map[string]anyGetStringMapString(key string) : map[string]stringGetStringSlice(key string) : []stringGetTime(key string) : time.TimeGetDuration(key string) : time.DurationIsSet(key string) : boolAllSettings() : map[string]any
One important thing to recognize is that each Get function will return a zero
value if it’s not found. To check if a given key exists, the IsSet() method
has been provided.
The zero value will also be returned if the value is set, but fails to parse as the requested type.
Example:
viper.GetString("logfile") // case-insensitive Setting & Getting
if viper.GetBool("verbose") {
fmt.Println("verbose enabled")
}The accessor methods also accept formatted paths to deeply nested keys. For example, if the following JSON file is loaded:
{
"host": {
"address": "localhost",
"port": 5799
},
"datastore": {
"metric": {
"host": "127.0.0.1",
"port": 3099
},
"warehouse": {
"host": "198.0.0.1",
"port": 2112
}
}
}
Viper can access a nested field by passing a . delimited path of keys:
GetString("datastore.metric.host") // (returns "127.0.0.1")This obeys the precedence rules established above; the search for the path will cascade through the remaining configuration registries until found.
For example, given this configuration file, both datastore.metric.host and
datastore.metric.port are already defined (and may be overridden). If in addition
datastore.metric.protocol was defined in the defaults, Viper would also find it.
However, if datastore.metric was overridden (by a flag, an environment variable,
the Set() method, …) with an immediate value, then all sub-keys of
datastore.metric become undefined, they are “shadowed” by the higher-priority
configuration level.
Viper can access array indices by using numbers in the path. For example:
{
"host": {
"address": "localhost",
"ports": [
5799,
6029
]
},
"datastore": {
"metric": {
"host": "127.0.0.1",
"port": 3099
},
"warehouse": {
"host": "198.0.0.1",
"port": 2112
}
}
}
GetInt("host.ports.1") // returns 6029Lastly, if there exists a key that matches the delimited key path, its value will be returned instead. E.g.
{
"datastore.metric.host": "0.0.0.0",
"host": {
"address": "localhost",
"port": 5799
},
"datastore": {
"metric": {
"host": "127.0.0.1",
"port": 3099
},
"warehouse": {
"host": "198.0.0.1",
"port": 2112
}
}
}
GetString("datastore.metric.host") // returns "0.0.0.0"When developing reusable modules, it's often useful to extract a subset of the configuration and pass it to a module. This way the module can be instantiated more than once, with different configurations.
For example, an application might use multiple different cache stores for different purposes:
cache:
cache1:
max-items: 100
item-size: 64
cache2:
max-items: 200
item-size: 80We could pass the cache name to a module (eg. NewCache("cache1")),
but it would require weird concatenation for accessing config keys and would be less separated from the global config.
So instead of doing that let's pass a Viper instance to the constructor that represents a subset of the configuration:
cache1Config := viper.Sub("cache.cache1")
if cache1Config == nil { // Sub returns nil if the key cannot be found
panic("cache configuration not found")
}
cache1 := NewCache(cache1Config)Note: Always check the return value of Sub. It returns nil if a key cannot be found.
Internally, the NewCache function can address max-items and item-size keys directly:
func NewCache(v *Viper) *Cache {
return &Cache{
MaxItems: v.GetInt("max-items"),
ItemSize: v.GetInt("item-size"),
}
}The resulting code is easy to test, since it's decoupled from the main config structure, and easier to reuse (for the same reason).
You also have the option of Unmarshaling all or a specific value to a struct, map, etc.
There are two methods to do this:
Unmarshal(rawVal any) : errorUnmarshalKey(key string, rawVal any) : error
Example:
type config struct {
Port int
Name string
PathMap string `mapstructure:"path_map"`
}
var C config
err := viper.Unmarshal(&C)
if err != nil {
t.Fatalf("unable to decode into struct, %v", err)
}If you want to unmarshal configuration where the keys themselves contain dot (the default key delimiter), you have to change the delimiter:
v := viper.NewWithOptions(viper.KeyDelimiter("::"))
v.SetDefault("chart::values", map[string]any{
"ingress": map[string]any{
"annotations": map[string]any{
"traefik.frontend.rule.type": "PathPrefix",
"traefik.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect": "true",
},
},
})
type config struct {
Chart struct{
Values map[string]any
}
}
var C config
v.Unmarshal(&C)Viper also supports unmarshaling into embedded structs:
/*
Example config:
module:
enabled: true
token: 89h3f98hbwf987h3f98wenf89ehf
*/
type config struct {
Module struct {
Enabled bool
moduleConfig `mapstructure:",squash"`
}
}
// moduleConfig could be in a module specific package
type moduleConfig struct {
Token string
}
var C config
err := viper.Unmarshal(&C)
if err != nil {
t.Fatalf("unable to decode into struct, %v", err)
}Viper uses github.com/go-viper/mapstructure under the hood for unmarshaling values which uses mapstructure tags by default.
A frequently requested feature for Viper is adding more value formats and decoders. For example, parsing character (dot, comma, semicolon, etc) separated strings into slices.
This is already available in Viper using mapstructure decode hooks.
Read more about the details in this blog post.
You may need to marshal all the settings held in viper into a string rather than write them to a file.
You can use your favorite format's marshaller with the config returned by AllSettings().
import (
yaml "gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
// ...
)
func yamlStringSettings() string {
c := viper.AllSettings()
bs, err := yaml.Marshal(c)
if err != nil {
log.Fatalf("unable to marshal config to YAML: %v", err)
}
return string(bs)
}Viper comes with a global instance (singleton) out of the box.
Although it makes setting up configuration easy, using it is generally discouraged as it makes testing harder and can lead to unexpected behavior.
The best practice is to initialize a Viper instance and pass that around when necessary.
The global instance MAY be deprecated in the future. See #1855 for more details.
You can also create many different vipers for use in your application. Each will have its own unique set of configurations and values. Each can read from a different config file, key value store, etc. All of the functions that viper package supports are mirrored as methods on a viper.
Example:
x := viper.New()
y := viper.New()
x.SetDefault("ContentDir", "content")
y.SetDefault("ContentDir", "foobar")
//...When working with multiple vipers, it is up to the user to keep track of the different vipers.
A: Viper is designed to be a companion to Cobra. While both can operate completely independently, together they make a powerful pair to handle much of your application foundation needs.
Is there a better name for a commander?
tl;dr: No.
Viper merges configuration from various sources, many of which are either case insensitive or uses different casing than the rest of the sources (eg. env vars). In order to provide the best experience when using multiple sources, the decision has been made to make all keys case insensitive.
There has been several attempts to implement case sensitivity, but unfortunately it's not that trivial. We might take a stab at implementing it in Viper v2, but despite the initial noise, it does not seem to be requested that much.
You can vote for case sensitivity by filling out this feedback form: https://forms.gle/R6faU74qPRPAzchZ9
No, you will need to synchronize access to the viper yourself (for example by using the sync package). Concurrent reads and writes can cause a panic.
See TROUBLESHOOTING.md.
For an optimal developer experience, it is recommended to install Nix and direnv.
Alternatively, install Go on your computer then run make deps to install the rest of the dependencies.
Run the test suite:
make testRun linters:
make lint # pass -j option to run them in parallelSome linter violations can automatically be fixed:
make fmtThe project is licensed under the MIT License.
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