NAME

Config::General::Match - Add <Location> and <LocationMatch> style matching to Config::General

VERSION

Version 0.05

NOTE

This module is obsolete and has now been superceded by Config::Context.

SYNOPSIS

use Config::General::Match;

my $config_text = '

    <Location /users>
        title = "User Area"
    </Location>

    <LocationMatch \.*(jpg|gif|png)$>
        image_file = 1
    </Location>

';


my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -String => $config_text,
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name          => 'Location',
            -MatchType     => 'path',
        },
        {
            -Name          => 'LocationMatch',
            -MatchType     => 'regex',
        },
    ],
);

my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/users/~mary/index.html');
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'title'         => 'User Area',
    'image_file'    => undef,
};

my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/users/~biff/images/flaming_logo.gif');
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'title'         => 'User Area',
    'image_file'    => 1,
};

DESCRIPTION

Introduction

This module extends Config::General by providing support for configuration sections that match only for a particular file or path or URL.

Typically you would use this to support the Apache-style conditional blocks, for instance:

<FilesMatch .jpg$>
    # ... some configuration ...
</FilesMatch>

<Location /users>
    # ... some configuration ...
</Location>

<LocationMatch .html$>
    # ... some configuration ...
</LocationMatch>

To read the configuration use $conf->getall_matching instead of $conf->getall:

my $conf         = Config::General::Match->new(...);
my %config       = $conf->getall_matching('/users/joe/index.html');
my %other_config = $conf->getall_matching('/images/banner.jpg');

Matching things other than paths

The Match feature is general enough that you can use it to match other things besides paths and URLs. For instance you could specify a -PathSeparator of :: and use the feature to match against Perl modules:

my $config_text = "

    is_core_module 0
    <Module NET::FTP>
        is_core_module 1
        author         Nathan Torkington
    </Module>

    <Module NET::FTPServer>
        author Richard Jone
    </Module>

";

my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -String => $config_text,
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name          => 'Module',
            -PathSeparator => '::',
            -MatchType     => 'path',
        },
    ],
);

my %config = $conf->getall_matching('Net::FTP');
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'is_core_module' => 1,
    'author'         => 'Nathan Torkington',
};

Merging

Merging with the implied 'Default' section

Config values that appear outside of any block act like defaults. Values in matching sections are merged with the default values. For instance:

private_area = 0
client_area  = 0

<Location /admin>
    private_area = 1
</Location>

<Location /clients>
    client_area  = 1
</Location>

# Admin Area URL
my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/admin/index.html');
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'private_area' => 1,
    'client_area' => 0,
};

# Client Area URL
my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/clients/index.html');
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'private_area' => 0,
    'client_area'  => 1,
};

# Neither Client nor Admin
my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/public/index.html');
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'private_area' => 0,
    'client_area'  => 0,
};

Multiple Level Merging

Sections and subsections are merged along with single values. For instance:

private_area = 0
client_area  = 0
<page_settings>
    title       = "The Widget Emporium"
    logo        = logo.gif
    advanced_ui = 0
</page_settings>

<Location /admin>
    private_area = 1
    <page_settings>
        title       = "The Widget Emporium - Admin Area"
        logo        = admin_logo.gif
        advanced_ui = 1
    </page_settings>
</Location>

<Location /clients>
    client_area  = 1
    <page_settings>
        title = "The Widget Emporium - Wholesalers"
        logo  = client_logo.gif
    </page_settings>
</Location>

# Admin Area URL
my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/admin/index.html');
use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'page_settings' => {
                        'advanced_ui' => '1',
                        'title' => 'The Widget Emporium - Admin Area',
                        'logo' => 'admin_logo.gif'
                       },
    'private_area' => '1',
    'client_area' => '0'
};
# Client Area URL
my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/clients/index.html');
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'page_settings' => {
                        'advanced_ui' => '0',
                        'title' => 'The Widget Emporium - Wholesalers',
                        'logo' => 'client_logo.gif'
                       },
    'client_area' => '1',
    'private_area' => '0'
};

# Neither Client nor Admin
my %config = $conf->getall_matching('/public/index.html');
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {

    'page_settings' => {
                        'advanced_ui' => '0',
                        'title' => 'The Widget Emporium',
                        'logo' => 'logo.gif'
                       },
    'client_area' => '0',
    'private_area' => '0'

};

Merging Multiple Matching Sections

Often more than one section will match the target string. When this happens, the matching sections are merged together using the Hash::Merge module. Typically this means that sections that are merged later override the values set in earlier sections. (But you can change this behaviour. See "Changing Hash::Merge behaviour" below.)

The order of merging matters. The sections are merged first according to each section's -MergePriority value (lowest values are merged first), and second by the length of the substring that matched (shortest matches are merged first). If you don't specify -MergePriority for any section, they all default to a priority of 0 which means all sections are treated equally and matches are prioritized based soley on the length of the matching strings.

The order of sections in the config file is ignored.

For instance, if your config file looks like this:

<Dir /foo/bar/baz>
    # section 1
</Dir>

<Path /foo>
    # section 2
</Path>

<Dir /foo/bar>
    # section 3
</Dir>

<Directory /foo/bar/baz/bam>
    # section 4
</Directory>

...and you construct your $conf object like this:

my $conf         = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
        { -Name    => 'Directory',  -MatchType => 'path' -MergePriority => 1 },
        { -Name    => 'Dir',        -MatchType => 'path' -MergePriority => 1 },
        { -Name    => 'Path',       -MatchType => 'path' -MergePriority => 2 },
    ],
);

...then the target string '/foo/bar/baz/bam/boom' would match all sections the order of 1, 3, 4, 2.

CONSTRUCTOR

new(...)

Creates and returns a new Config::General::Match object.

my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
       {  -Name  => 'Directory',  -MatchType => 'path' },
    ],
    -ConfigFile => 'somefile.conf',
);

The arguments to new() are the same as you would provide to Config::General, with the addition of -MatchSections. (But see see the BUGS section for limitations on compatibility with Config::General.)

The -MatchSections parameter takes a list of specification hashrefs. Each specification has the following fields:

-Name

The name of the section. For a name of 'Location', the section would look like:

<Location /somepath>
</Location>

This parameter is affected by the Config::General option -LowerCaseNames. If -LowerCaseNames is true, then the following would all be valid 'Location' sections.

<Location /somepath>
</Location>

<loCATtion /somepath>
</Location>

<lOcAtion /somepath>
</LOCATION>

-MatchType

Specifies the method by which the section strings should match the target string.

The valid types of matches are 'exact', 'substring', 'regex', 'path', and 'hierarchical'

exact

The config section string matches only if it is equal to the target string. For instance:

# somefile.conf
<Site mysite>
    ...
</Site>
...


my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name      => 'Site',
            -MatchType => 'exact',
        },
    ],
    -ConfigFile => 'somefile.conf',
);

In this case, only the string mysite would match the section.

substring

The config section string is tested to see if it is a substring of the target string. For instance:

# somefile.conf
<Location foo>
    ...
</Location>

...


my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name      => 'LocationMatch',
            -MatchType => 'substring',
        },
    ],
    -ConfigFile => 'somefile.conf',
);

In this case, the following target strings would all match:

/foo
big_foo.html
/hotfood

Do not quote the match string; it will not work if you do so.

regex

The config section string is treated as a regular expression against which the target string is matched. For instance:

# somefile.conf
<LocationMatch (\.jpg)|(\.gif)(\.png)$>
    Image = 1
</LocationMatch>

...

my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name      => 'LocationMatch',
            -MatchType => 'regex',
        },
    ],
    -ConfigFile => 'somefile.conf',
);

my %config = $conf->getall_matching('banner.jpg');

The regex can contain any valid Perl regular expression. So to match case-insensitively you can use the (?i:) syntax:

<LocationMatch (?i:/UsErS)>
    UserDir = 1
</LocationMatch>

Also note that the regex is not tied to the beginning of the target string by default. So for regexes involving paths you will probably want to do so explicitly:

<LocationMatch ^/users>
    UserDir = 1
</LocationMatch>

Do not quote a regex; it will not work if you do so.

path

This method is useful for matching paths, URLs, Perl Modules and other hierarchical strings.

The config section string is tested against the the target string according to the following rules:

The section string is a substring of the target string
The section string starts at the first character of the target string
In the target string, the section string is followed immediately by -PathSeparator or the end-of-string.

For instance:

# somefile.conf
<Location /foo>
</Location>

...

my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name      => 'LocationMatch',
            -MatchType => 'path',
        },
    ],
    -ConfigFile => 'somefile.conf',
);

In this case, the following target strings would all match:

/foo
/foo/
/foo/bar
/foo/bar.txt

But the following strings would not match:

/foo.txt
/food
/food/bar.txt
foo.txt

Do not quote the path; it will not work if you do so.

hierarchical

A synonym for 'path'.

-PathSeparator

The path separator when matching hierarchical strings (paths, URLs, Module names, etc.). It defaults to '/'.

This parameter is ignored unless the -MatchType is 'path' or 'hierarchical'.

-SectionType

Allows you to only process certain sections for certain types of strings. For instance, you could match some sections against a given filesystem path and some sections against a Perl module name, using the same config file.

# somefile.conf
# section 1
<FileMatch \.pm$>
    Perl_Module      = 1
    Core_Module      = 1
    Installed_Module = 0
</FileMatch>

# section 2
<FileMatch ^/.*/lib/perl5/site_perl>
    Core_Module = 0
</FileMatch>

# section 3
# Note the whitespace at the end of the section name, to prevent File from
# being parsed as a stand-alone block by Config::General
<File /usr/lib/perl5/ >
    Installed_Module = 1
</File>

# section 4
<Module NET::FTP>
    FTP_Module = 1
</Module>

my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name        => 'FileMatch',
            -MatchType   => 'regex',
            -SectionType => 'file',
        },
        {
            -Name        => 'File',
            -MatchType   => 'path',
            -SectionType => 'file',
        },
        {
            -Name        => 'Module',
            -MatchType   => 'path',
            -Separator   => '::',
            -SectionType => 'module',
        },
    ],
    -ConfigFile => 'somefile.conf',

    # need to turn off C-style comment parsing because of the
    # */ in the name of section 3
    -CComments => 0,
);

my %config = $conf->getall_matching(
    file   => '/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/NET/FTP/Common.pm',
    module => 'NET::FTP::Common',
);

This tests /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/NET/FTP/Common.pm against sections 1, 2 and 3 (and merging them in the order of shortest to longest match, i.e. 1, 3, 2).

Then it tests 'NET::FTP::Common' against section 4 (which also matches). The resulting configuration is:

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'Perl_Module'      => 1,
    'Core_Module'      => 0,
    'FTP_Module'       => 1,
    'Installed_Module' => 1,
};

Another example:

my %config = $conf->getall_matching(
    file   => '/var/www/cgi-lib/FTP/FTPServer.pm',
    module => 'NET::FTPServer',
);

This tests /var/www/cgi-lib/NET/FTPServer.pm against sections 1, 2 and 3, and matches only against section 1. Then it matches 'NET::FTPServer' against section 4 (which does not match). The result is:

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper(\%config);
$VAR1 = {
    'Perl_Module'      => 1,
    'Core_Module'      => 0,
    'FTP_Module'       => 0,
    'Installed_Module' => 0,
};

If a -SectionType is not specified in a -MatchSections block, then target strings of a named type will not match it.

Matching by -SectionType is used in CGI::Application::Plugin::Config::General to generate configurations based both on the URL of the request and of the name of the Perl Module and runmode handling the request.

-TrimSectionNames

By default, section names are trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace before they are used to match. This is to allow for sections like:

<Path /foo/bar/ >
</Path>

The whitespace at the end of the section name is necessary to prevent Config::General's parser from thinking that the first tag is an empty <Path /> block.

<Path /foo/bar/>  # Config::General parses this as <Path />
</Path>           # Config::General now considers this to be spurious

If leading and trailing whitespace is significant to your matches, you can disable trimming by setting -TrimSectionNames to 0 or undef.

-MergePriority

Sections with a lower -MergePriority are merged before sections with a higher -MergePriority. If two or more sections have the same -MergePriority they are weighted the same and they are merged according to the "best match" against the target string (i.e. the longest matching substring).

See the description above under "Merging Multiple Matching Sections".

METHODS

Config::General::Match is a subclass of Config::General, so you can use of Config::General's methods. In particular, you can use getall() to get the entire configuration without concern for any section matching.

getall_matching( $target_string )

Returns the merged configuration of all sections matching $target_string, according to the rules set up in the -MatchSections in new(). All -MatchSections are included, regardless of their -SectionType.

getall_matching( $type => $target_string )

Returns the merged configuration matching $target_string, based only the -MatchSections that have a -SectionType of $type.

getall_matching( $type1 => $target_string1, $type2 => $target_string2 )

Returns the merged configuration of all sections of -SectionType $type1 matching $target_string1 and all sections of -SectionType $type2 matching $target_string2.

The order of the parameters to getall_matching() is retained, so $type1 sections will be matched first, followed by $type2 sections.

If you call getall_matching in a scalar context, you will receive a reference to the config hash:

my $config = $conf->getall_matching($target_string);
my $value = $config->{'somekey'};

getall_matching_nested( $level, ... )

Behaves the same as getall_matching, except that it can match nested structures.

# stories.conf
<Story Three Little Pigs>
    antagonist = Big Bad Wolf
    moral      = obey the protestant work ethic
</Story>

<Location /aesop>
    <Story Wolf in Sheep's Clothing>
        antagonist = Big Bad Wolf
        moral      = appearances are deceptive
    </Story>
</Location>

<Story Little Red Riding Hood>
    antagonist = Big Bad Wolf

    <Location /perrault>
        moral      = never talk to strangers
    </Location>

    <Location /grimm>
        moral      = talk to strangers and then chop them up
    </Location>
</Story>


my $conf = Config::General::Match->new(
    -MatchSections => [
        {
            -Name        => 'Story',
            -MatchType   => 'substring',
            -SectionType => 'story',
        },
        {
            -Name        => 'Location',
            -MatchType   => 'path',
            -SectionType => 'path',
        },
    ],
    -ConfigFile => 'stories.conf',
);

my $depth = 2;
$config = $conf->getall_matching_nested(
    $depth,
    story => 'Wolf in Sheep\'s Clothing',
    path  => '/aesop/wolf-in-sheeps-clothing',
);

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper($config);
$VAR1 = {
    'antagonist' => 'Big Bad Wolf',
    'moral'      => 'appearances are deceptive'
};

Changing Hash::Merge behaviour

Matching sections are merged together using the Hash::Merge module. If you want to change how this module does its work you can call subroutines in the Hash::Merge package directly. For instance, to change the merge strategy so that earlier sections have precidence over later sections, you could call:

# Note American Spelling :)
Hash::Merge::set_behavior('RIGHT_PRECEDENT')

You should do this before you call getall_matching().

For more information on how to change merge options, see the Hash::Merge docs.

AUTHOR

Michael Graham, <mag-perl@occamstoothbrush.com>

BUGS

This module does not support the functional interface to Config::General (e.g. ParseConfig()).

This module only supports the following constructor form:

my $self = Config::General::Match->new( %options );

It does not support the other two Config::General constructor styles:

# NOT supported
my $self = Config::General->new( "rcfile" );
my $self = Config::General->new( \%some_hash );

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-config-general-match@rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This module would not be possible without Thomas Linden's excellent Config::General module.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

To install Config::General::Match, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm Config::General::Match

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Config::General::Match

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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