Provide system-level configuration files

[pradyunsg]

What

This is an ask for a "Global" layer of configuration to be provided, living in /etc. Unlike pip, I think uv should have only one file under that hierarchy.

Why

This would enable system administrators of shared machines to configure uv to use the correct index-url and link-mode without needing to affect the runtime shell environments used by developers.

My specific use case is for being able to configure the index-url to point to the internal index on shared machines, which helps reduce workflow friction for newcomers which in turn reduces the number of users using workarounds to hit the "wrong" package indexes.

For context, this is the current configuration I've got for pip with the URLs redacted:

$ cat /etc/pip.conf
[global]
index-url = https://[internal-url]/simple
require-virtualenv = true

[search]
index = https://[internal-url]/search

How

uv already has logic for handling merging of project-level and user-level configuration. This would add another layer to that configuration merging -- with the preference order being project overrides user (current) which in turn overrides global.

[pradyunsg]

sigh That's malware.

[charliermarsh]

This makes sense to me.

[charliermarsh]

Is there an obvious home for this, e.g., following XDG?

[pradyunsg]

I think a top-level file (/etc/uv.toml) would be fine. I think pip inherits the XDG support from appdirs (now platformdirs) and I am not fully familiar with the "Why" on this.

[pradyunsg]

Actually... I take that back. Looking at what platformdirs does today... XDG is an obvious home for this.

https://github.com/platformdirs/platformdirs/blob/4.2.2/src/platformdirs/unix.py#L79-L83

So... the location would be /etc/xdg/uv/uv.toml and involve respecting the relevant XDG env var if set.

[pelson]

I honestly believe that system-level configuration is an anti-pattern (but common!), and if I were prioritising I would say that executable-level configuration is actually more useful for shared machines.

To clarify my meaning:

executable-level / prefix config is config that lives in the prefix root of the executable being run. So if I have my uv installed in /opt/bin/uv, I would want uv to look for config in /opt (I don't really care where, given what @pradyunsg proposed, /opt/xdg/uv/uv.toml is fine).

By extension, if I have my uv in /home/user/my-own-environment/bin/uv, then the config would come from /home/user/my-own-environment/xdg/uv/uv.toml.

My rationale for making the opening statement ("executable-level configuration is actually more useful for shared machines") is that if a sys admin is providing uv then they should absolutely be able to configure that uv (project and user levels don't let them do that). However, if a sys admin isn't providing uv, then what interest do they actually have in configuring uv for you? Are they sure that the config that they specify is actually valid for the arbitrary uv version that I am going to install?

On the contrary, if a sys admin wants to provide multiple versions of uv (e.g. to aid migration to a newer version), they have the ability to configure each individually and adapt the config to the specific version. This would be handy for example if there are config options that aren't valid in one version that are in another.

As a final remark, if uv isn't found in a bin directory, it isn't being managed (and probably was downloaded directly into a homespace), then no prefix-level config should be taken.

[pradyunsg]

Hi folks! Is there anything I can do to help move this forward? Would a PR adding support be the best way forward here or are there any higher level concerns around implementing this?

[charliermarsh]

I think I'm fine with this (\cc @zanieb in case you disagree), in which case a PR adding support would be the best path forward!

[charliermarsh]

I can also do it @pradyunsg if you haven't started on it yet.

[zanieb]

I'm fine with this if we have a clear standard we can follow regarding the location.

I don't really know what to do about toggling this behavior based on where the uv binary is. That seems quite complicated, though I share your concerns about the configuration not being valid for your version. Are we going to have a separate way to opt-out of this? e.g. --no-system-config and system-config = false?

[gaby]

This should be the same way pip does it. I manage a fleet of systems and we configure all of then by creating an /etc/pip.conf file. When ansible runs to install python apps, it just works by using that, no extra config needed. Users don't have sudo access.

[charliermarsh]

Are you objecting to something specific? We have an open PR (#7851) that supports /etc/uv/uv.toml in that way.

[gaby]

Are you objecting to something specific? We have an open PR (#7851) that supports /etc/uv/uv.toml in that way.

Yeah I just literally saw the PR. It does solve this problem 💪 That would allow for easy configuration via ansible.

[pradyunsg]

Given that #7851 has landed, I guess we should close this out? Or do the maintainers wanna wait until they've cut a release with this. 😅

[charliermarsh]

Yes thank you!