This is the README file for AppConfig Version 1.52

AppConfig is a bundle of Perl5 modules for reading configuration files
and parsing command line arguments.  This is a descendant of, and
supercedes the App::Config module.  Functionality is extended over the
final version of App::Config (1.09) and includes many new features.  This
module has been developed and in the process, renamed, as part of an
effort to unify the various Perl modules for parsing configuration files
and command line arguments.

AppConfig has a powerful but easy to use module for parsing configuration
files.  It also has a simple and efficient module for parsing command line
arguments.  For fully-featured command line parsing, a module is provided
for interfacing AppConfig to Johan Vromans' extensive Getopt::Long module.
Johan will continue to develop the functionality of this package and its
features will automatically become available through AppConfig.

All of the modules and features of the AppConfig bundle are easily
accessible through the AppConfig.pm module.

Relevant changes to the AppConfig module are documented in the Changes
files.

The rest of this document contains information extracted from relevant
sections of the AppConfig.pm documentation.


NAME
   AppConfig - Perl5 module for reading configuration files and parsing
   command line arguments.

OVERVIEW
   AppConfig is a Perl5 module for managing application configuration
   information. It maintains the state of any number of variables and
   provides methods for parsing configuration files and command line
   arguments.

   Variables values may be set via configuration files. Variables may be
   flags (On/Off), take a single value, or take multiple values stored as a
   a list or hash. The number of arguments a variable expects is determined
   by its configuration when defined.

       # flags
       verbose
       nohelp
       debug = On

       # single value
       home  = /home/abw/

       # multiple list value
       file = /tmp/file1
       file = /tmp/file2

       # multiple hash value
       book  camel = Programming Perl
       book  llama = Learning Perl

   The '-' prefix can be used to reset a variable to its default value and
   the '+' prefix can be used to set it to 1

       -verbose
       +debug

   Variable, environment variable and tilde (home directory) expansions can
   be applied (selectively, if necessary) to the values read from
   configuration files:

       home = ~                    # home directory
       nntp = ${NNTPSERVER}        # environment variable
       html = $home/html           # internal variables
       img  = $html/images

   Configuration files may be arranged in blocks as per the style of Win32
   "INI" files.

       [file]
       site = kfs
       src  = ~/websrc/docs/$site
       lib  = ~/websrc/lib
       dest = ~/public_html/$site

       [page]
       header = $lib/header
       footer = $lib/footer

   Variables may also be set by parsing command line arguments.

       myapp -verbose -site kfs -file f1 -file f2

   AppConfig provides a simple method (args()) for parsing command line
   arguments. A second method (getopt()) allows more complex argument
   processing by delegation to Johan Vroman's Getopt::Long module.

PREREQUISITES
   AppConfig requires Perl 5.004 or later.

   The AppConfig::Getopt module uses Getopt::Long for advanced command-line
   option processing and requires version 2.17 or later. There is also a
   simple internal module (AppConfig::Args) for command line parsing that
   does not have the flexibility of AppConfig::Getopt but is smaller and
   incurs less overhead. The Getopt::Long module is not required when this
   is used. The Makefile.PL specifies Getopt::Long version 2.17 as a pre-
   requisite. If you wish to use AppConfig without Getopt::Long then
   comment out the following line in the Makefile.PL:

       #    'PREREQ_PM'      => { 'Getopt::Long' => 2.17 },

   No action is necessary if you already have Getopt::Long 2.17 or later
   installed. Getopt::Long is available from any CPAN site (see below).

   All AppConfig::* and other modules (e.g. Getopt::Long) are dynamically
   loaded by the AppConfig module as and when required.

OBTAINING AND INSTALLING THE AppConfig MODULE BUNDLE
   The AppConfig module bundle is available from CPAN. As the 'perlmod'
   manual page explains:

       CPAN stands for the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network.
       This is a globally replicated collection of all known Perl
       materials, including hundreds of unbundled modules.

       [...]

       For an up-to-date listing of CPAN sites, see
       http://www.perl.com/perl/ or ftp://ftp.perl.com/perl/ .

   Within the CPAN archive, AppConfig is in the category:

       12) Option, Argument, Parameter and Configuration File Processing

   The module is available in the following directories:

       /modules/by-module/AppConfig/AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz
       /authors/id/ABW/AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz

   AppConfig is distributed as a single gzipped tar archive file:

       AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz

   Note that "<version>" represents the current AppConfig Revision number,
   of the form "2.00". See the REVISION section below to determine the
   current version number for AppConfig.

   Unpack the archive to create a AppConfig installation directory:

       gunzip AppConfig-<version>.tar.gz
       tar xvf AppConfig-<version>.tar

   'cd' into that directory, make, test and install the modules:

       cd AppConfig-<version>
       perl Makefile.PL
       make
       make test
       make install

   The 't' sub-directory contains a number of test scripts that are run
   when a 'make test' is run.

   The 'make install' will install the module on your system. You may need
   administrator privileges to perform this task. If you install the module
   in a local directory (for example, by executing "perl Makefile.PL
   LIB=~/lib" in the above - see `perldoc MakeMaker' for full details), you
   will need to ensure that the PERL5LIB environment variable is set to
   include the location, or add a line to your scripts explicitly naming
   the library location:

       use lib '/local/path/to/lib';

   The 'examples' sub-directory contains some simple examples of using the
   AppConfig modules.

AUTHOR
   Andy Wardley, `<[email protected]>', http://www.kfs.org/~abw/

   Web Technology Group, Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd.

REVISION
   $Revision: 1.52 $

COPYRIGHT
   Copyright (C) 1998 Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd. All Rights
   Reserved.

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

SEE ALSO
   AppConfig::State, AppConfig::File, AppConfig::Args, AppConfig::Getopt
   Getopt::Long

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