NAME
   Config::Simple - Simple Configuration File class

SYNOPSIS
       # In your configuratin file (some.cfg)
       [mysql]
       user=sherzodr
       password=secret
       host=localhost
       database=test

       # In your program

       use Config::Simple;

       my $cfg = new Config::Simple("some.cfg");

       # reading
       my $user = $cfg->param('mysql.user');
       my $password = $cfg->param('mysql.password');

       # updating
       $cfg->param('mysql.user', foo);

       # saving the changes back into the file
       $cfg->write();

       # tricks are endless

DESCRIPTION
   Config::Simple is a Perl class to manipulate simple, windows-ini-styled
   configuration files. Reading and writing external configurable data is
   the integral part of any software design, and Config::Simple is designed
   to help you with it.

REVISION
   This manual refers to $Revision: 3.4 $

CONFIGURATION FILE SYNTAX
   Syntax of the configuration file is similar to windows .ini files, where
   configuration variables and their values are seperated with '=' sign,
   each set belongind to a specific namespace (block):

           [block]
           var1=value1
           var2=value2

   If the block is missing, or any of the key=value pairs are encountered
   without prior block declaration, they will be assigned to a virtual
   block. Name of the virtual block is controlled with
   $Config::Simple::DEFAULTNS variable:

       use Config::Simple;
       $Config::Simple::DEFAULTNS = "root";
       $cfg = new Config::Simple("some.cfg");

   If you do not explicitly assign a namespace, "default" is implied.

   By default, Config::Simple treats everything after the '=' to the end of
   the line as configuration value (spaces trimmed). Unfortunately, other
   configuration file parsing utilities do not quite aggree with the idea,
   and assert if the value contains non-alphanumerics, they should be
   enclosed in double quotes ("). Config::Simple supports this syntax as
   well. If you intend to use this syntax, you should enable "-strict"
   switch like so:

       use Config::Simple qw/-strict/;

   Now Config::Simple expects to see any values that contain
   non-alphanumeric characters in double quotes. Double quotes to be used
   inside the value should be escaped with \ (backslash):

       [default]
       nick = sherzodR
       name = "Sherzod Ruzmetov"
       url  = "http://author.ultracgis.com"
       email= "[email protected]"
       quoted = "My favorite quote is \"Learn as if you were to live forever\""
       age  = 22

   Enabling "-strict" switch is also useful to keep trailing and leading
   spaces in configuration values:

       [default]
       signature = "            Foo Bar                   "

   Lines starting with '#' or ';' to the end of the line are considered
   comments, thus ignored while parsing. Line, containing a single dot is
   the logical end of the configuration file (doesn't necessaryily have to
   be the physical end though ). So everything after that line is also
   ignored.

   Note, when you ask Config::Simple to save the changes back, all the
   comments will be discarded, but everything after that final dot is
   stored back as it was.

   I admit, keeping the comments would be quite useful too. May be in
   subsequent releases.

CONSTRUCTOR
   "new()" - constructor, initializes and returns Config::Simple object.
   Following options are available:

   *   "filename" - filename to read into memory. If this option is
       defined, Config::Simple also calls read() for you. If there's only
       one argument passed to the constructor, it will be treated as the
       filename as well.

   *   "autosave" - boolean value indicating if in-memory modifications be
       saved back to configuration file before object is destroyed. Default
       is 0, which means "no". (See the autosave() entry elsewhere in this
       document)

   *   "decoder" - reference to a function (coderef), is used by read() to
       decode the values. If this option is missing, default decoder will
       be used, which simply decodes new line characters (\n) back to
       newlines (opposite of default encoder). See the decoder() entry
       elsewhere in this document.

   *   "encoder" - reference to a function (coderef). Is used by write() to
       encode special characters/sequences before saving them in the
       configuration file. If this option is missing, default encoder will
       be used, which encodes newlines to avoid corrupted configuration
       files. See the encoder() entry elsewhere in this document.

   All the arguments to the constructor can also be set with their
   respective accessor methods. However, there's an important point to keep
   in mind. If you define filename as an argument while calling the
   constructor and at the same time want to use your custom decoder, you
   should specify the decoder together with the filename. Otherwise, when
   constructor calls read(), it will use default decoder(). Another option
   is not to mention filename to constructor, but do so to read().

METHODS
   Following methods are available for a Config::Simple object

   *   read() - reads and parses the configuration file into Config::Simple
       object. Accepts one argument, which is treated as a filename to
       read. If "filename" option to the constructor was defined, there's
       no point calling read(), since new() will call it for you. Example:

           $cfg = new Config::Simple();
           $cfg->read("some.cfg");

   *   hashref() - returns the configuration file as a reference to a hash.
       Keys consist of configuration section and section key separated by a
       dot (.), and value holding the value for that key. Example:

           # some.cfg
           [section]
           key1=value1
           key2=value2

       Hashref will return the following hash:

           $ref = {
               'section.key1' => value1,
               'section.key2' => value2,
           }

   *   param_hash() - for backward compatibility. Returns similar data as
       hashref() does (see the hashref() entry elsewhere in this document),
       but returns de referenced hash.

   *   param() - used for accessing and modifying configuration values. Act
       differently depending on the arguments passed.

       param()
           If used with no arguments, returns all the keys available in the
           configuration file. Once again, keys are sections and section
           variables delimited with a dot.

       param($key)
           If used with a single argument, returns the respective value for
           that key. Argument is expected to be in the form of
           "sectionName.variableName".

       param(-name=>$key)
           The same as the previous syntax.

       param($key, $value)
           Used to modify $key with $value. $key is expected to be in
           "sectionName.variableName" format.

       param(-name=>$key, -value=>$value);
           The same as the previous syntax.

       param(-block=>$blockname)
           Returns a single block/section from the configuration file in
           form of hashref (reference to a hash). For example, assume we
           had the following block in our "some.cfg"

               [mysql]
               user=sherzodr
               password=secret
               host=localhost
               database=test

           We can access the above block like so:

               my $mysql = $cfg->param(-block=>'mysql');
               my $user = $mysql->{user};
               my $host = $mysql->{host};

       param(-block=>$blockname, -values=>{key1 => value1,...})
           Used to create a new block or redefine the existing one.

   block()
       Returns the list of all the avialable blocks in the configuration
       file. If used with an argument, returns the content of that
       particular block in the form of hashref:

           my @blocks = $cfg->block();

   *   write() - saves the modifications to the configuration file.
       Config::Simple will call write() for you automatically if 'autosave'
       was set to true (see the new() entry elsewhere in this document).
       Otherwise, write() is there for you if need. Argument, if exists,
       will be treated a name of a file current data should be written in.
       It's useful to copy modified configuration file to a different
       location, or to save the backup copy of a current configuration file
       before making any changes to it:

           $cfg = new Config::Simple(filename=>'some.cfg', autosave=>1);

           $cfg->write('some.cfg.bak');        # creating backup copy
                                               # before updating the contents

   *   write_string() - creates and returns the content of the
       configuration file as a string, instead of writing it into a file.
       The string returned by write_string() is guaranteed to be the same
       as what is written into a file.

   *   encoder() - sets a new encoder to be used in the form of coderef.
       This encoder will be used by write() before writing the values back
       to a file. Alternatively, you can define the encoder as an argument
       to constructor ( see the new() entry elsewhere in this document ).

   *   decoder() - sets a new decoder to be used in the form of coderef.
       This decoder is used by read() ( see the read() entry elsewhere in
       this document ), so should be set (if at all) before calling read().
       Alternatively, you can define the decoder as an argument to
       constructor ( see the new() entry elsewhere in this document ).

   *   autosave() - sets autosave value (see the new() entry elsewhere in
       this document)

   *   dump() - dumps the object data structure either to STDOUT or into a
       filename which can be defined as the first argument. Used for
       debugging only

CREDITS
   Following people contributed with patches and/or suggestions to the
   Config::Simple. In chronological order:

   Michael Caldwell ([email protected])
       Added witespace support in the configuration files, which enables
       custom identation

   Scott Weinstein ([email protected])
       Fixed the bugs in the TIEHASH method.

   Ruslan U. Zakirov <[email protected]>
       Default namespace suggestion and patch.

   Adam Kennedy <[email protected]>
       Added a write_string() method, for getting the file as a string. Fix
       for the case when the value is ''

   Gavin Brown <[email protected]>
       Proposed quoted values feature. This made configuration files
       created by Config::Simple compatible with those expected by PHP's
       parse_ini_file() function.

AUTHOR
   Config::Simple is written and maintained by Sherzod Ruzmetov
   <[email protected]>

COPYRIGHT
       This library is a free software, and can be modified and redistributed
       under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
   the Config::General manpage

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