Keyrings-alt

5.0.2 · active · verified Fri Apr 10

Keyrings-alt is a Python package that provides alternative backend implementations for the `keyring` library, enabling password storage solutions across various environments. It's currently at version 5.0.2 and maintains an active release cadence, often aligning with `keyring` library updates.

Warnings

breaking `keyrings-alt` v4.0.0 and later require Python 3.8 or newer. Previous versions supported older Python environments.
Fix: Upgrade to Python 3.8 or a later version, or use an older `keyrings-alt` version (e.g., `pip install 'keyrings-alt<4.0.0'`) if your project can't upgrade Python.
breaking `keyrings-alt` v5.0.0 and later explicitly require `keyring` library version 24.0.0 or newer. Installing `keyrings-alt` might automatically upgrade `keyring`.
Fix: Ensure your `keyring` installation is version 24.0.0 or higher. If you have dependency conflicts, resolve them by updating other packages or pinning `keyring` to a compatible version.
gotcha Users typically interact with `keyrings-alt` indirectly through the `keyring` library's API (e.g., `keyring.set_password`, `keyring.get_password`). Direct imports from `keyrings.alt` are generally for advanced scenarios like explicit backend instantiation.
Fix: For most use cases, simply `import keyring` and use its functions. `keyrings-alt` is a dependency that provides the backend implementations for `keyring` to discover.
gotcha Different backends provided by `keyrings-alt` (e.g., `FileKeyring`, `NullKeyring`) have varying security implications. Some backends, like `FileKeyring`, store credentials in plaintext or in less secure ways than system-native keyrings.
Fix: Understand the security model of the specific keyring backend being used. Avoid using less secure backends (like `FileKeyring` for sensitive data) in production environments unless explicitly required and mitigated.

Install

pip install keyrings-alt Install keyrings-alt

Imports

FileKeyring
```
from keyrings.alt.file import FileKeyring
```
While `keyrings.alt` primarily provides backend plugins that are automatically discovered by the `keyring` library, specific backend classes (like `FileKeyring`) can be imported directly for advanced use cases, such as explicit instantiation or testing.

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates how `keyrings-alt` integrates with the `keyring` library. Once `keyrings-alt` is installed, its alternative backends become available for `keyring` to discover and use automatically. The example shows setting and retrieving a password, and identifying the active keyring backend.

import keyring
import os

# keyrings-alt, once installed, provides additional backends
# that the 'keyring' library automatically discovers and uses.

service_name = "my-app-service"
username = "test-user"
password = os.environ.get('KEYRING_TEST_PASSWORD', 'super-secret-password-123')

print(f"Using keyring for service '{service_name}', user '{username}'.")

# Set a password. The 'keyring' library will try to use the best available backend,
# which might be one provided by keyrings-alt if no stronger native keyring is present.
keyring.set_password(service_name, username, password)
print(f"Password set for service '{service_name}' user '{username}'.")

# Retrieve the password
retrieved_password = keyring.get_password(service_name, username)

print(f"Retrieved password: {'*' * len(retrieved_password) if retrieved_password else 'None'}")

if retrieved_password == password:
    print("Password retrieved successfully and matches original.")
else:
    print("Password retrieval failed or did not match.")

# You can inspect the currently active keyring backend
current_keyring = keyring.get_keyring()
print(f"\nCurrently active keyring backend: {current_keyring.__class__.__name__}")

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