If you have one large dataframe and only a few update values I would use apply like this:
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({'filename' : ['test0.dat', 'test2.dat'],
'm': [12, 13], 'n' : [None, None]})
data = {'filename' : 'test2.dat', 'n':16}
def update_vals(row, data=data):
if row.filename == data['filename']:
row.n = data['n']
return row
df.apply(update_vals, axis=1)