Index: Doc/lib/libcfgparser.tex
===================================================================
--- Doc/lib/libcfgparser.tex	(revision 54408)
+++ Doc/lib/libcfgparser.tex	(working copy)
@@ -54,14 +54,18 @@
 the sections will be sorted on write-back, as will be the keys within
 each section.
 
-\begin{classdesc}{RawConfigParser}{\optional{defaults\optional{, dict_type}}}
+\begin{classdesc}{RawConfigParser}{\optional{defaults\optional{, dict_type}}\optional{, delimiters=\("=", ":"\)}}
 The basic configuration object.  When \var{defaults} is given, it is
 initialized into the dictionary of intrinsic defaults.  When \var{dict_type}
 is given, it will be used to create the dictionary objects for the list
 of sections, for the options within a section, and for the default values.
+When a list of single-characters is provided in \var{delimiters}, it will
+override the default separators between keys and values in the configuration
+file. The first such delimiter is always used in writing the file out.
 This class does not support the magical interpolation behavior.
 \versionadded{2.3}
 \versionchanged[\var{dict_type} was added]{2.6}
+\versionchanged[\var{delimiters} was added]{2.6}
 \end{classdesc}
 
 \begin{classdesc}{ConfigParser}{\optional{defaults}}
Index: Lib/ConfigParser.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/ConfigParser.py	(revision 54408)
+++ Lib/ConfigParser.py	(working copy)
@@ -24,11 +24,16 @@
 
     methods:
 
-    __init__(defaults=None)
+    __init__(defaults=None, dict_type=dict, delimiters=('=', ':'))
         create the parser and specify a dictionary of intrinsic defaults.  The
         keys must be strings, the values must be appropriate for %()s string
         interpolation.  Note that `__name__' is always an intrinsic default;
-        its value is the section's name.
+        its value is the section's name.  When dict_type is given, it will be 
+        used to create the dictionary objects for the list of sections, for the
+        options within a section, and for the default values. When delimiters
+        is specified, the provided list of single characters will be used to
+        determine the separation between keys and values in options. 
+        When writing a config file, the first delimiter is used.
 
     sections()
         return all the configuration section names, sans DEFAULT
@@ -200,7 +205,13 @@
 
 
 class RawConfigParser:
-    def __init__(self, defaults=None, dict_type=dict):
+    SECTCRE = re.compile(
+        r'\['                                 # [
+        r'(?P<header>[^]]+)'                  # very permissive!
+        r'\]'                                 # ]
+    )
+
+    def __init__(self, defaults=None, dict_type=dict, delimiters=('=', ':'), ):
         self._dict = dict_type
         self._sections = self._dict()
         self._defaults = self._dict()
@@ -208,6 +219,17 @@
             for key, value in defaults.items():
                 self._defaults[self.optionxform(key)] = value
 
+        self._delimiters = ''.join(delimiters)
+
+        self.OPTCRE = re.compile(
+            r'(?P<option>[^' + self._delimiters + '\s][^' + self._delimiters + ']*)'          # very permissive!
+            r'\s*(?P<vi>[' + self._delimiters + '])\s*'                 # any number of space/tab,
+                                                  # followed by specified
+                                                  # delimiters, followed
+                                                  # by any space/tab
+            r'(?P<value>.*)$'                     # everything up to eol
+            )
+
     def defaults(self):
         return self._defaults
 
@@ -363,14 +385,16 @@
         if self._defaults:
             fp.write("[%s]\n" % DEFAULTSECT)
             for (key, value) in self._defaults.items():
-                fp.write("%s = %s\n" % (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
+                fp.write("%s %s %s\n" % (key, self._delimiters[0], 
+                            str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
             fp.write("\n")
+            
         for section in self._sections:
             fp.write("[%s]\n" % section)
             for (key, value) in self._sections[section].items():
                 if key != "__name__":
-                    fp.write("%s = %s\n" %
-                             (key, str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
+                    fp.write("%s %s %s\n" % (key, self._delimiters[0], 
+                                str(value).replace('\n', '\n\t')))
             fp.write("\n")
 
     def remove_option(self, section, option):
@@ -395,23 +419,6 @@
             del self._sections[section]
         return existed
 
-    #
-    # Regular expressions for parsing section headers and options.
-    #
-    SECTCRE = re.compile(
-        r'\['                                 # [
-        r'(?P<header>[^]]+)'                  # very permissive!
-        r'\]'                                 # ]
-        )
-    OPTCRE = re.compile(
-        r'(?P<option>[^:=\s][^:=]*)'          # very permissive!
-        r'\s*(?P<vi>[:=])\s*'                 # any number of space/tab,
-                                              # followed by separator
-                                              # (either : or =), followed
-                                              # by any # space/tab
-        r'(?P<value>.*)$'                     # everything up to eol
-        )
-
     def _read(self, fp, fpname):
         """Parse a sectioned setup file.
 
@@ -466,7 +473,7 @@
                     mo = self.OPTCRE.match(line)
                     if mo:
                         optname, vi, optval = mo.group('option', 'vi', 'value')
-                        if vi in ('=', ':') and ';' in optval:
+                        if vi in self._delimiters and ';' in optval:
                             # ';' is a comment delimiter only if it follows
                             # a spacing character
                             pos = optval.find(';')
Index: Lib/test/test_cfgparser.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_cfgparser.py	(revision 54408)
+++ Lib/test/test_cfgparser.py	(working copy)
@@ -408,7 +408,48 @@
                          [0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13])
         self.assertEqual(cf.get('non-string', 'dict'), {'pi': 3.14159})
 
+    def get_custom_delimiter_test(self):
+        return StringIO.StringIO(
+            "[foo]\n"
+            "somekey$some value\n"
+            "some other key$some other value\n"
+            "[money]\n"
+            "owed=$4.05"
+        )
 
+    def test_get_custom_delimiters(self):
+        cf = ConfigParser.RawConfigParser(delimiters=('$',))
+        cf.readfp(self.get_custom_delimiter_test())
+        
+        self.assertEqual(cf.get('foo', 'somekey'), 'some value')
+        self.assertEqual(cf.get('foo', 'some other key'), 'some other value')
+        self.assertRaises(ConfigParser.NoOptionError, cf.get, 'money', 'owed')
+
+        cf = ConfigParser.RawConfigParser(delimiters=('$=',))
+        cf.readfp(self.get_custom_delimiter_test())
+        
+        self.assertEqual(cf.get('money', 'owed'), '$4.05')
+        
+    def test_set_custom_delimiters(self):
+        cf = ConfigParser.RawConfigParser(delimiters=('$',), dict_type=SortedDict)
+        cf.add_section('foo')
+        cf.set('foo', 'somekey', 'some value')
+        cf.set('foo', 'some other key', 'some other value')
+        
+        self.assertEqual(cf.get('foo', 'somekey'), 'some value')
+        self.assertEqual(cf.get('foo', 'some other key'), 'some other value')
+        
+        output = StringIO.StringIO()
+        cf.write(output)
+
+        self.assertEqual(output.getvalue(),
+            "[foo]\n"
+            "some other key $ some other value\n"
+            "somekey $ some value\n"
+            "\n"
+        )
+        
+
 class SafeConfigParserTestCase(ConfigParserTestCase):
     config_class = ConfigParser.SafeConfigParser