NAME

Config::Simple::Conf - A fast and lightweight configuration file handler

DESCRIPTION

The idea behind Config::Simple::Conf came from various INI style parsers I've used in the past. In general these have worked well with the exception of lack of complex configuration handling.

Config::Simple for example fails to account for common cases which are extremely useful in any configuration file. These include useful handling of duplicate keys (currently Config::Simple blows them away without any notice), and second, internal macros.

In many of my usage cases I want something like your standard .INI file format, with the above mentioned exceptions.

# Define a configuration section
[core section]

# Define an entry in core section
path = /root/to/my/stuff

# Define a new configuration file section
[section name]

# Define an entry list and use the value from another section to complete
# the configuration
path = [core section:path]/abc
path = [core section:path]/xyz

Such a configuration would allow me to do two things, establish a core path argument, which is then used in other sections, and have a section with multiple duplicate entires as a list.

An example of the code here would look something like:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use Config::Simple::Conf;

my $conf = Config::Simple::Conf->new('/path/to/my.conf');

print "My root is: " . $conf->value('core section', 'path') . "\n";
print "My section paths are:\n";

for($conf->value('section name', 'path')){
	print "\t$_\n";
}

With the resulting output looking something like:

My root is: /root/to/my/stuff
My section paths are:
	/root/to/my/stuff/abc
	/root/to/my/stuff/xyz

CONFIG FILE FORMAT

Configuration files are defined as ascii text, with comments lines starting with a pound symbol #, sections, keys, and values. Values may be macro entries referencing other configuration keys.

SECTION

A section is defined as a single line entry with double square brakets [section]:

# Define a section
[section]

KEYS

Keys are defined within a section as lines with keyname = value type entry

# Define a value for keyname in section [section]
[section]
keyname = value

USING A MACRO

Macros are defined as square brakets with a section:key entry between them. These are automatically resolved to other configuration keys and those key values are utilized.

Macros may NOT utilize list entries as a macro value at this point.

# Define a value based on a macro
[section2]
key = [section:keyname]

EXAMPLES

See examples/ directory for various configuration file examples

SYNOPSIS

use Config::Simple::Conf;

my $conf = Config::Simple::Conf->new('/etc/Something/Example.conf');

print $conf->value('global', 'example_key');

METHODS

new()

Config::Simple::Conf->new(FILE, CFHASH)

Generate / Regenerate the configuration hash reference based on on standard Ruckus configuration files and options.

FILE         -  The configuratino file to process, if
                undefined @ARGV will be processed for
                arguments.

CFHASH       -  An existing configuraiton hash generated
                by Config::Simple::Conf  in which data should be appended
                to.

Returns a hash reference with two types of values:

A standard string "abc", and array reference ["a","b","c"]. In cases of unique keys data is stored as a string. In cases were there are multiple duplicate keys data is stored in an array reference.

Keys may make use of other keys values with in the key value.

Example:
  [example]
  # sets [example:abc] to '123'
  abc = 123

  # sets [efg] to '123'
  efg = [example:abc]

  # sets [example:list] to [1, 2, 3]
  list = 1
  list = 2
  list = 3

When making use of other key's values (as explainded in the example above) the embedded key '[abc]' MUST be unique. Using embedded keys in a listing context is not allowed and will result in an fatal error.

In some cases configuration files may need to include other configuration files. The way this is done is via a speical key called 'include'. The same file will be automatically execluded if it's detected multiple times.

Command line arguments are captured and placed in the ARGV configuration section, command line arguments are CASE SENSITIVE.

value(SECTION, KEY)

Retrieve a configuration value or list from SECTION for KEY keyname.

By rule, entries outside of a section are 'global', entries within the CLI arguments list are in section 'argv'

islist(SECTION, KEY)

Return true if the SECTION's KEY is a list of entries

sections()

Return a list of available sections

keys(SECTION)

Return the keys for a given section

AUTHOR

Colin Faber <cfaber@fpsn.net>

LICENSE AND COPYTIGHT

Copyright 2016 (C) Colin Faber

This library is licensed under the Perl Artistic license and may be freely used and distributed under the terms of Perl itself.

cpanm Config::Simple::Conf

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Config::Simple::Conf