NAME
Config::Auto - Magical config file parser
SYNOPSIS
use Config::Auto;
# Not very magical at all.
my $config = Config::Auto::parse("myprogram.conf", format => "colon");
# Considerably more magical.
my $config = Config::Auto::parse("myprogram.conf");
# Highly magical.
my $config = Config::Auto::parse();
DESCRIPTION
This module was written after having to write Yet Another Config File
Parser for some variety of colon-separated config. I decided "never
again".
When you call "Config::Auto::parse" with no arguments, we first look at
$0 to determine the program's name. Let's assume that's "snerk". We look
for the following files:
snerkconfig
~/snerkconfig
/etc/snerkconfig
snerk.config
~/snerk.config
/etc/snerk.config
snerkrc
~/snerkrc
/etc/snerkrc
.snerkrc
~/.snerkrc
/etc/.snerkrc
We take the first one we find, and examine it to determine what format
it's in. The algorithm used is a heuristic "which is a fancy way of
saying that it doesn't work." (Mark Dominus.) We know about colon
separated, space separated, equals separated, XML, Perl code, Windows
INI, BIND9 and irssi style config files. If it chooses the wrong one,
you can force it with the "format" option.
If you don't want it ever to detect and execute config files which are
made up of Perl code, set "$Config::Auto::DisablePerl = 1".
Then the file is parsed and a data structure is returned. Since we're
working magic, we have to do the best we can under the circumstances -
"You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles." (Miracle Max) So
there are no guarantees about the structure that's returned. If you have
a fairly regular config file format, you'll get a regular data structure
back. If your config file is confusing, so will the return structure be.
Isn't life tragic?
Here's what we make of some common Unix config files:
/etc/resolv.conf:
$VAR1 = {
'nameserver' => [ '163.1.2.1', '129.67.1.1', '129.67.1.180' ],
'search' => [ 'oucs.ox.ac.uk', 'ox.ac.uk' ]
};
/etc/passwd:
$VAR1 = {
'root' => [ 'x', '0', '0', 'root', '/root', '/bin/bash' ],
...
};
/etc/gpm.conf:
$VAR1 = {
'append' => '""',
'responsiveness' => '',
'device' => '/dev/psaux',
'type' => 'ps2',
'repeat_type' => 'ms3'
};
/etc/nsswitch.conf:
$VAR1 = {
'netgroup' => 'nis',
'passwd' => 'compat',
'hosts' => [ 'files', 'dns' ],
...
};
TODO
Better BIND9 file format parser.
irssi file format parser currently doesn't exist. It would be
good to add support for "mutt" and "vim" style "set"-based RCs.
AUTHOR
Simon Cozens, "
[email protected]"
LICENSE
AL&GPL.
