Allow giving values for dict type config values in the overrides.

CHANGES

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
+Release 0.6 (in development)
+============================
+
+New features added
+------------------
+
+* Other changes:
+
+  - Allow giving config overrides for single dict keys on the command
+    line.
+
+
 Release 0.5 (Nov 23, 2008) -- Birthday release!
 ===============================================
 

doc/intro.rst

@@ -111,8 +111,12 @@ The :program:`sphinx-build` script has several more options:
    .. versionadded:: 0.5
    
 **-D** *setting=value*
-   Override a configuration value set in the :file:`conf.py` file.  (The value
-   must be a string value.)
+   Override a configuration value set in the :file:`conf.py` file.  The value
+   must be a string or dictionary value.  For the latter, supply the setting
+   name and key like this: ``-D latex_elements.docclass=scrartcl``.
+
+   .. versionchanged:: 0.6
+      The value can now be a dictionary value.
 
 **-A** *name=value*
    Make the *name* assigned to *value* in the HTML templates.

sphinx/config.py

@@ -111,6 +111,12 @@ class Config(object):
 
     def init_values(self):
         config = self._raw_config
+        for valname, value in self.overrides.iteritems():
+            if '.' in valname:
+                realvalname, key = valname.split('.', 1)
+                config.setdefault(realvalname, {})[key] = value
+            else:
+                config[valname] = value
         config.update(self.overrides)
         for name in config:
             if name in self.values:

tests/test_config.py

@@ -15,7 +15,8 @@ from util import *
 from sphinx.application import ExtensionError
 
 
-@with_app(confoverrides={'master_doc': 'master', 'nonexisting_value': 'True'})
+@with_app(confoverrides={'master_doc': 'master', 'nonexisting_value': 'True',
+                         'latex_elements.docclass': 'scrartcl'})
 def test_core_config(app):
     cfg = app.config
 
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ def test_core_config(app):
 
     # overrides
     assert cfg.master_doc == 'master'
+    assert cfg.latex_elements['docclass'] == 'scrartcl'
 
     # simple default values
     assert 'exclude_dirs' not in cfg.__dict__