Writing inline comments to a file removes the whitespace between the value and the comment

[gene1wood]

When ConfigObj parses a file with inline comments, it stores those comments with the leading # character. When ConfigObj later writes back to the file, the whitespace between the value and the # character is lost changing lines like

key = value # my comment

to

key = value# my comment

Steps to reproduce

Create a test.ini file like this

[section1]
key = value # my comment

Then execute this code

from configobj import ConfigObj

config = ConfigObj('test.ini')
config.write()

Expected result

That the test.ini file would remain unchanged

Actual result

test.ini now contains

[section1]
key = value# my comment

Workaround

Given that ConfigObj will add in an inline comment with the whitespace if the stored inline comment doesn't contain the # character

configobj/src/configobj/__init__.py

Lines 2001 to 2002 in c89a025

	if not comment.startswith('#'):
	start += self._a_to_u(' # ')

here's a workaround to ensure inline comments have the leading space before the # character. This is done by removing the # character from the stored inline comment.

import re

pattern = re.compile(r'^#\s*')
for section in config.sections:
    for key, inline_comment in config[section].inline_comments.items():
        if inline_comment is not None:
            config[section].inline_comments[key] = pattern.sub('', inline_comment)