Installing and Using Python Keyring Lib

Table of Contents

• What is Python keyring lib?
• Installation Instructions
  • easy_install or pip
  • Source installation
• Using Keyring
• Configure your keyring lib
  • Customize your keyring by config file
    • Config file path
    • Config file content
  • Write your own keyring backend
  • Set the keyring in runtime
• Integrate the keyring lib with your application
  • API interface
• Get involved
  • Making Releases
  • Running Tests
    • Using pytest runner
    • Using virtualenv and pytest/nose/unittest2
    • Using buildout
• Credits

What is Python keyring lib?

The Python keyring lib provides a easy way to access the system keyring service from python. It can be used in any application that needs safe password storage.

The keyring library is licensed under both the MIT license and the PSF license.

These primary keyring services are supported by the Python keyring lib:

• Mac OS X Keychain
• Linux Secret Service
• Windows Credential Vault

Other keyring implementations are provided as well. For more detail, browse the source.

Installation Instructions

easy_install or pip

Run easy_install or pip:

$ easy_install keyring
$ pip install keyring

Source installation

Download the source tarball from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/keyring, uncompress it, and then run "setup.py install".

Using Keyring

The basic usage of keyring is pretty simple: just call keyring.set_password and keyring.get_password:

>>> import keyring
>>> keyring.set_password("system", "username", "password")
>>> keyring.get_password("system", "username")
'password'

Configure your keyring lib

The python keyring lib contains implementations for several backends. The library will automatically choose the keyring that is most suitable for your current environment. You can also specify the keyring you like to be used in the config file or by calling the set_keyring() function.

Customize your keyring by config file

This section describes how to change your option in the config file.

Config file path

The configuration of the lib is stored in a file named "keyringrc.cfg". This file must be found in a platform-specific location. To determine where the config file is stored, run the following:

python -c "import keyring.util.platform_; print(keyring.util.platform_.config_root())"

Some keyrings also store the keyring data in the file system. To determine where the data files are stored, run this command:

python -c "import keyring.util.platform_; print(keyring.util.platform_.data_root())"

Config file content

To specify a keyring backend, set the default-keyring option to the full path of the class for that backend, such as keyring.backends.OS_X.Keyring.

If keyring-path is indicated, keyring will add that path to the Python module search path before loading the backend.

For example, this config might be used to load the SimpleKeyring from the demo directory in the project checkout:

[backend]
default-keyring=simplekeyring.SimpleKeyring
keyring-path=/home/kang/pyworkspace/python-keyring-lib/demo/

Write your own keyring backend

The interface for the backend is defined by keyring.backend.KeyringBackend. Every backend should derive from that base class and define a priority attribute and three functions: get_password(), set_password(), and delete_password().

See the backend module for more detail on the interface of this class.

Set the keyring in runtime

Keyring additionally allows programmatic configuration of the backend calling the api set_keyring(). The indicated backend will subsequently be used to store and retrieve passwords.

Here's an example demonstrating how to invoke set_keyring:

# define a new keyring class which extends the KeyringBackend
import keyring.backend

class TestKeyring(keyring.backend.KeyringBackend):
    """A test keyring which always outputs same password
    """
    priority = 1

    def set_password(self, servicename, username, password):
        pass

    def get_password(self, servicename, username):
        return "password from TestKeyring"

    def delete_password(self, servicename, username, password):
        pass

# set the keyring for keyring lib
keyring.set_keyring(TestKeyring())

# invoke the keyring lib
try:
    keyring.set_password("demo-service", "tarek", "passexample")
    print("password stored sucessfully")
except keyring.errors.PasswordSetError:
    print("failed to store password")
print("password", keyring.get_password("demo-service", "tarek"))

Integrate the keyring lib with your application

API interface

The keyring lib has a few functions:

• get_keyring(): Return the currently-loaded keyring implementation.
• get_password(service, username): Returns the password stored in the active keyring. If the password does not exist, it will return None.
• set_password(service, username, password): Store the password in the keyring.
• delete_password(service, username): Delete the password stored in keyring. If the password does not exist, it will raise an exception.

Get involved

Python keyring lib is an open community project and highly welcomes new contributors.

• Repository: https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/
• Bug Tracker: https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/issues/
• Mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/python-keyring

Making Releases

Python keyring lib uses a simple tag and release process. The simplified workflow is first tag a release, then invoke setup.py release.

Other things to consider when making a release:

• first ensure that tests pass (preferably on Windows and Linux)
• check that the changelog is current for the intended release
• after tagging, but before releasing, push the changes to the repository

Running Tests

Tests are continuously run using Travis-CI.

To run the tests yourself, you'll want keyring installed to some environment in which it can be tested. Three recommended techniques are described below.

Using pytest runner

Keyring is instrumented with pytest runner. Thus, you may invoke the tests from any supported Python (with distribute installed) using this command:

python setup.py ptr

pytest runner will download any unmet dependencies and run the tests using pytest.

This technique is the one used by the Travis-CI script.

Using virtualenv and pytest/nose/unittest2

Pytest and Nose are two popular test runners that will discover tests and run them. Unittest (unittest2 under Python 2.6) also has a mode to discover tests.

First, however, these test runners typically need a test environment in which to run. It is recommended that you install keyring to a virtual environment to avoid interfering with your system environment. For more information, see the venv documentation or the virtualenv homepage.

After you've created (or designated) your environment, install keyring into the environment by running:

python setup.py develop

Then, invoke your favorite test runner, e.g.:

py.test

or:

nosetests

Using buildout

Keyring supplies a buildout.cfg for use with buildout. If you have buildout installed, tests can be invoked as so:

1. bin/buildout  # prepare the buildout.
2. bin/test  # execute the test runner.

For more information about the options that the script provides do execute:

python bin/test --help

Credits

The project was based on Tarek Ziade's idea in this post. Kang Zhang initially carried it out as a Google Summer of Code project, and Tarek mentored Kang on this project.

See CONTRIBUTORS.txt for a complete list of contributors.