CONFIG FILE

Your config file normally is ~/.config/python_release_info/config.ini (i.e. follows XDG) except for Windows: %APPDATA%/python_release_info/config.ini.

The [INFO] section in that file allows you to add to, or overwrite, data in the automatically updated information:

[INFO]
add = xxx.pon
overwrite = yyy.pon

You can, but don't have to, have either or both entries set. By default both are commented out. The files must have the same hierarchical structure as the release_info.pon, so it probably best to copy that file and delete what is not relevant, then update the rest.

The difference between the two is that when using add the data loaded from there does not overwrite already existing "paths" to leaf node data loaded from release_info.pon. You should use add for information that you expect to be incorporated in future automatic updates, and when it does get incorporated, you want to use that information. You should use overwrite e.g. when you found an error in the data and you cannot wait to have it fixed in the release_info repository and automatically downloaded.

So if you would have the following in the automatically updated release_info.pon ( in reality there is more data there):

dict(
  cpython={
    (3, 8): {
      (3, 8, 0): dict(rel=date(2019, 10, 14)),
      (3, 8, 1): dict(rel=date(2019, 12, 18)),
      (3, 8, 2): dict(rel=date(2020, 2, 24), md5='e9d6ebc92183a177b8e8a58cad5b8d67'),
    },
  }
)

and have the following in your xxx.pon file (to be added):

dict(
  cpython={
    (3, 8): {
      (3, 8, 0): dict(md5='dbac8df9d8b9edc678d0f4cacdb7dbb0'),
      (3, 8, 1): dict(rel=date(2019, 12, 25), md5='b3fb85fd479c0bf950c626ef80cacb57'),
      (3, 8, 3): dict(rel=date(2020, 5, 4)),
    },
  }
)

then the result would be like:

dict(
  cpython={
    (3, 8): {
      (3, 8, 0): dict(rel=date(2019, 10, 14), md5='dbac8df9d8b9edc678d0f4cacdb7dbb0'),
      (3, 8, 1): dict(rel=date(2019, 12, 18), md5='b3fb85fd479c0bf950c626ef80cacb57'),
      (3, 8, 2): dict(rel=date(2020, 2, 24), md5='e9d6ebc92183a177b8e8a58cad5b8d67'),
      (3, 8, 3): dict(rel=date(2020, 5, 4)),
    },
  }
)

but if the same content would be in yyy.pon (to be overwritten), then the result would be like:

dict(
  cpython={
    (3, 8): {
      (3, 8, 0): dict(rel=date(2019, 10, 14), md5='dbac8df9d8b9edc678d0f4cacdb7dbb0'),
      (3, 8, 1): dict(rel=date(2019, 12, 25), md5='b3fb85fd479c0bf950c626ef80cacb57'),
      (3, 8, 2): dict(rel=date(2020, 2, 24), md5='e9d6ebc92183a177b8e8a58cad5b8d67'),
      (3, 8, 3): dict(rel=date(2020, 5, 4)),
    },
  }
)

with the difference being in the date for release 3.8.1.

[DEFAULTS]
dir = /opt/util/pri/tmp

[DEFAULTS.DOWNLOAD]
force = True

API

You can use the release information from your program:

import pathlib
from release_info import release_info

def download_and_extract_latest_micro_versions_non_end_of_life():
    ri = release_info()
    ri.download_data()
    latest = None
    for version in ri.find_current():
        url = ri.src_url(version)
        print(version, url)  # list the versions found
        latest = version
    # extract the last of the versions found
    path = pathlib.Path('/var/tmp')
    ri.download(latest, dir=path, extract=True)
    print(list(path.glob('Python*')))

def download_and_extract_new_versions_only():
    ri = release_info()
    for version in ri.download_data():
        path = pathlib.Path('/var/tmp/new')
        ri.download(latest, dir=path, extract=True)

download_and_extract_latest_micro_versions_non_end_of_life()

which shows:

(3, 7, 12) https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.12/Python-3.7.12.tar.xz
(3, 8, 12) https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.8.12/Python-3.8.12.tar.xz
(3, 9, 9) https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.9.9/Python-3.9.9.tar.xz
(3, 10, 1) https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.10.1/Python-3.10.1.tar.xz
[PosixPath('/var/tmp/Python-3.10.1'), PosixPath('/var/tmp/Python-3.10.1.tar.xz')]