Combining update_config() and merge_mappings() into a single function

[ns-rse]

The utils.update_config() and io.merge_mappings() (introduced in #981) do very similar things, recursively update a dictionary.

utils.update.config()

• Recursively updates a dictionary (config) with values from a second dictionary or Namespace.
• Converts base_dir and output_dir to Path via convert_path()

def update_config(config: dict, args: dict | Namespace) -> dict:
    """
    Update the configuration with any arguments.

    Parameters
    ----------
    config : dict
        Dictionary of configuration (typically read from YAML file specified with '-c/--config <filename>').
    args : Namespace
        Command line arguments.

    Returns
    -------
    dict
        Dictionary updated with command arguments.
    """
    args = vars(args) if isinstance(args, Namespace) else args

    config_keys = config.keys()
    for arg_key, arg_value in args.items():
        if isinstance(arg_value, dict):
            update_config(config, arg_value)
        else:
            if arg_key in config_keys and arg_value is not None:
                original_value = config[arg_key]
                config[arg_key] = arg_value
                LOGGER.debug(f"Updated config config[{arg_key}] : {original_value} > {arg_value} ")
    if "base_dir" in config.keys():
        config["base_dir"] = convert_path(config["base_dir"])
    if "output_dir" in config.keys():
        config["output_dir"] = convert_path(config["output_dir"])
    return config

io.merge_mappings()

• Recursively adds mappings if the value is a MutableMapping (i.e. dictionary)
• If value isn't a MutableMapping its value updates that of the config.

def merge_mappings(map1: MutableMappingType, map2: MutableMappingType) -> MutableMappingType:
    """
    Merge two mappings (dictionaries), with priority given to the second mapping.
    Note: Using a Mapping should make this robust to any mapping type, not just dictionaries. MutableMapping was needed
    as Mapping is not a mutable type, and this function needs to be able to change the dictionaries.
    Parameters
    ----------
    map1 : MutableMapping
        First mapping to merge, with secondary priority.
    map2 : MutableMapping
        Second mapping to merge, with primary priority.
    Returns
    -------
    dict
        Merged dictionary.
    """
    # Iterate over the second mapping
    for key, value in map2.items():
        # If the value is another mapping, then recurse
        if isinstance(value, MutableMapping):
            # If the key is not in the first mapping, add it as an empty dictionary before recursing
            map1[key] = merge_mappings(map1.get(key, {}), value)
        else:
            # Else simply add / override the key value pair
            map1[key] = value
    return map1

It should be possible to combine these into a single function, avoiding duplication and simplifying the code base so that a single call can be made to combine/update configurations.