Python API to configure hosts.xml file

[francoisWeber]

Hi Vespa Team,
I am preparing a code to generate a Vespa app package tailored for my infrastructure. The .sd file is OK along to the services.xml. However I find no solution to generate the hosts.xml using PyVespa tools.

Could you explain how to generate this file please ?

Thanks.
François

[thomasht86]

Hi!
There is no pyvespa specific-interface to do this today.
You could use the python standardlib to do it (https://docs.python.org/3/library/xml.etree.elementtree.html#tutorial).
We are also open for contributions if you want to take a stab at adding support more natively.

[francoisWeber]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Maybe Claude/Cursor could do something : I'll give it a try soon !

[YashasviMantha]

This is a good feature to have. @thomasht86, I believe you are migrating the xml file generation from Jinja templates to a VespaTag (VT) based approach. Do you think we can just implement a VT based config on this? Or we should also have a jinja template for consistency?

I think the hosts file just uses 3 tags:

hosts_tags: List[str] = [
    "hosts",
    "host",
    "alias",
]

[thomasht86]

I agree! Would prefer a VT-based config over jinja for this. Should be quite straightforward.
PR would be welcome. :)