YAML Data Reader

This challenge focuses on reading data from YAML files using Python. YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language) is a human-readable data serialization format often used for configuration files and data exchange. Your task is to write a Python function that can parse a YAML file and return its contents as a Python dictionary.

Problem Description

You are required to create a Python function named read_yaml_file that takes a file path as input and reads the YAML data from the specified file. The function should parse the YAML content and return it as a Python dictionary. If the file does not exist or is not a valid YAML file, the function should raise a FileNotFoundError or yaml.YAMLError respectively, providing a descriptive error message.

Key Requirements:

• The function must handle valid YAML files.
• The function must raise appropriate exceptions for invalid file paths or YAML content.
• The function should return a Python dictionary representing the YAML data.
• The function should use the yaml library for parsing. You will need to install this library (pip install pyyaml).

Expected Behavior:

When given a valid YAML file path, the function should successfully parse the YAML content and return a Python dictionary. When given an invalid file path, it should raise a FileNotFoundError. When given a file that exists but contains invalid YAML, it should raise a yaml.YAMLError.

Edge Cases to Consider:

• Empty YAML files.
• YAML files with complex data structures (nested dictionaries, lists, etc.).
• YAML files with comments.
• YAML files with different indentation styles (though consistent indentation is expected).
• Non-existent files.
• Files that are not YAML files.

Examples

Example 1:

Input: "config.yaml" (where config.yaml contains:
name: "My Application"
version: 1.0
settings:
  debug: true
  port: 8080)
Output: {'name': 'My Application', 'version': 1.0, 'settings': {'debug': True, 'port': 8080}}
Explanation: The function successfully reads the YAML file and returns a dictionary representing the configuration.

Example 2:

Input: "nonexistent_file.yaml"
Output: Raises FileNotFoundError with message "File not found: nonexistent_file.yaml"
Explanation: The file does not exist, so a FileNotFoundError is raised.

Example 3:

Input: "invalid.yaml" (where invalid.yaml contains:
name: "My Application"
version: 1.0
: invalid yaml syntax)
Output: Raises yaml.YAMLError with a descriptive error message related to the invalid syntax.
Explanation: The YAML file contains invalid syntax, so a yaml.YAMLError is raised.

Constraints

• The input file path will be a string.
• The YAML library (pyyaml) must be used for parsing.
• The function must handle files up to 1MB in size.
• The function should be reasonably efficient; parsing should complete within 1 second for typical configuration files.

Notes

• Remember to import the necessary yaml library.
• Use a try-except block to handle potential FileNotFoundError and yaml.YAMLError exceptions.
• Consider using yaml.safe_load() for increased security, especially if you are reading YAML files from untrusted sources. yaml.safe_load() prevents arbitrary code execution.
• The YAML file is expected to contain a single top-level mapping (dictionary). While lists are allowed within the mapping, the top level should be a dictionary.