docs: def load_manifest(raw_manifest, namespace=None, **kwargs):
      """ wrapper method which generates the manifest from various sources """
      if isinstance(raw_manifest, configparser.RawConfigParser):
          return Manifest(raw_manifest)
  
      manifest = create_configparser()
  
      if not manifest.has_section('config'):
          manifest.add_section('config')
  
      _load_manifest_interpret_source(manifest,
                                      raw_manifest,
                                      **kwargs)
      return Manifest(manifest, namespace=namespace)