5.4 Section keys

Section names may consist of one or more keys. Commas and periods in a section name are used to split the section name into its component keys. If a period or a comma is not to be treated as a key split point, encapsulate the section components with single or double quotes. If one component is encapsulated, all must be encapsulated. Keys within the section name can be considered as keys into a dictionary.

For example:

path = 192.168.0.99

[rack0.dev0]
path = 192.168.0.0

[rack0.dev1]
path = 192.168.0.1

['lab1.rack0','dev0']
path = 192.168.0.2

['lab1.rack0','dev1']
path = 192.168.0.3

Can be thought of as:

path = { 'DEFAULT' : '192.168.0.99',
         'rack0' : {
            'dev0' : '192.168.0.0',
            'dev1' : '192.168.0.1' },
         'lab1.rack0' : {
             'dev0' : '192.168.0.2',
             'dev1' : '192.168.0.3' } }

But syntax is available to extend the section keys with the section name notation immediately following the option name so that the above example could have been written as:

path = 192.168.0.99

[rack0]
path[dev0] = 192.168.0.0
path[dev1] = 192.168.0.1

['lab1.rack0']
path[dev0] = 192.168.0.2
path[dev1] = 192.168.0.3