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

    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 2.93 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.

    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, `<abw@cre.canon.co.uk>'

    Web Technology Group, Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd.

REVISION
    $Revision: 0.6 $

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