Config::ApacheFormat 1.0
========================
CHANGES
1.0 Sun Nov 24 12:58:35 2002
- First version.
INSTALLATION
To install this module type the following:
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
DEPENDENCIES
This module requires these other modules and libraries:
Carp
Scalar::Util 1.07
Class::MethodMaker 1.08
Text::Balanced 1.89
File::Spec 0.82
DESCRIPTION
This module is designed to parse a configuration file in the same syntax
used by the Apache web server (see
http://httpd.apache.org for details).
This allows you to build applications which can be easily managed by
experienced Apache admins. Also, by using this module, you'll benefit
from the support for nested blocks with built-in parameter inheritence.
This can greatly reduce the amount or repeated information in your
configuration files.
A good reference to the Apache configuration file format can be found
here:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/configuring.html
To quote from that document, concerning directive syntax:
Apache configuration files contain one directive per line. The
back-slash "\" may be used as the last character on a line to
indicate that the directive continues onto the next line. There must
be no other characters or white space between the back-slash and the
end of the line.
Directives in the configuration files are case-insensitive, but
arguments to directives are often case sensitive. Lines that begin
with the hash character "#" are considered comments, and are
ignored. Comments may not be included on a line after a configuration
directive. Blank lines and white space occurring before a directive
are ignored, so you may indent directives for clarity.
And block notation:
Directives placed in the main configuration files apply to the entire
server. If you wish to change the configuration for only a part of the
server, you can scope your directives by placing them in <Directory>,
<DirectoryMatch>, <Files>, <FilesMatch>, <Location>, and
<LocationMatch> sections. These sections limit the application of the
directives which they enclose to particular filesystem locations or
URLs. They can also be nested, allowing for very fine grained
configuration.
RATIONALE
There are at least two other modules on CPAN that perform a similar
function to this one, Apache::ConfigFile and Apache::ConfigParser.
Although both are close to what I need, neither is totally satisfactory.
Apache::ConfigFile suffers from a complete lack of tests and a rather
clumsy API. Also, it doesn't support quoted strings correctly.
Apache::ConfigParser comes closer to my needs, but contains code
specific to parsing actual Apache configuration files. As such it is
unsuitable to parsing an application configuration file in Apache
format. Unlike Apache::ConfigFile, Apache::ConfigParser lacks support
for Include.
Additionally, neither module supports directive inheritence within
blocks. As this is the main benefit of Apache's block syntax I decided I
couldn't live without it.
In general, I see no problem with reinventing the wheel as long as
you're sure your version will really be better. I believe this is, at
least for my purposes.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2002 Sam Tregar
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl 5 itself.
