# 12.18 `netrc` -- netrc file processing

New in version 1.5.2.

The `netrc` class parses and encapsulates the netrc file format used by the Unix ftp program and other FTP clients.

class `netrc`( | [file])

  A `netrc` instance or subclass instance encapsulates data from a netrc file. The initialization argument, if present, specifies the file to parse. If no argument is given, the file .netrc in the user's home directory will be read. Parse errors will raise `NetrcParseError` with diagnostic information including the file name, line number, and terminating token.

exception `NetrcParseError`
  Exception raised by the `netrc` class when syntactical errors are encountered in source text. Instances of this exception provide three interesting attributes: `msg` is a textual explanation of the error, `filename` is the name of the source file, and `lineno` gives the line number on which the error was found.