How can I set default values for SafeConfigParser?

Question

I have a config file as follows:

[job]
mailto=bob
logFile=blahDeBlah.txt

I want to read the options using SafeConfigParser:

values = {} 
config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser()
try:
    config.read(configFile)
    jobSection = 'job'

    values['mailto'] = config.get( jobSection, 'mailto' )
    values['logFile'] = config.get( jobSection, 'logFile' )
    # it is not there
    values['nothingThere'] = config.get( jobSection, 'nothingThere' )
.... # rest of code

The last line of course will throw an error. How can I specify a default value for the config.get() method?

Then again, if I have an options file as follows:

[job1]
mailto=bob
logFile=blahDeBlah.txt

[job2]
mailto=bob
logFile=blahDeBlah.txt

There seems to be no way to specify default options for job1 different from the default options in section job2.

Answer 1

Use the defaults parameter to the constructor:

# class ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser([defaults[, dict_type]]) 
#
config = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser({'nothingThere': 'lalalalala'})
...
...
# If the job section has no "nothingThere", "lalalalala" will be returned
# 
config.get(jobSection, 'nothingThere')