Ufdjrw

I'm new in Erlang and I have a question about .config files:
I have a configuration file with:

path, "/mnt/test/".
name, "Joe".

The path and the name could be changed by a user. As I know, there is a way to save those variables in a module by usage of file:consult/1 in

-define(VARIABLE, <parsing of the config file>).

Are there any better ways to read a config file when the module begins to work without making a parsing function in -define? (As I know, according to Erlang developers, it's not the best way to make a complicated functions in -define)

Thanks in advance.

If you need to store config only when you start the application - you may use application config file which is defined in 'rebar.config'

profiles, [
 local,
 [relx, [
 dev_mode, false,
 include_erts, true,
 include_src, false,
 vm_args, "config/local/vm.args"]
 sys_config, "config/local/yourapplication.config"]
 ]
 
].

more info about this here: rebar3 configuration

next step to create yourapplication.config - store it in your application folder /app/config/local/yourapplication.config

this configuration should have structure like this example

[
 
 yourapplicationname, [
 path, "/mnt/test/",
 name, "Joe"
 ]
 
].

so when your application is started
you can get the whole config data with

ok, "/mnt/test/" = application:get_env(yourapplicationname, path)
ok, "Joe" = application:get_env(yourapplicationname, name)

and now you may -define this variables like:

-define(VARIABLE,
 case application:get_env(yourapplicationname, path) of
 ok, Data -> Data
 _ -> undefined
 end
).