NAME IniConf - A Module for reading .ini-style configuration files SYNOPSIS use IniConf; DESCRIPTION IniConf provides a way to have readable configuration files outside your Perl script. The configuration can be safely reloaded upon receipt of a signal. USAGE Get a new IniConf object with the *new* method: $cfg = IniConf->new( -file => "/path/configfile.ini" ); $cfg = new IniConf -file => "/path/configfile.ini"; Optional named parameters may be specified after the configuration file name. See the *new* in the METHODS section, below. INI files consist of a number of sections, each preceeded with the section name in square brackets. The first nonblank character of the line indicating a section must be a left bracket and the last nonblank character of a line indicating a section must be a right bracket. The characters making up the section name can be any symbols at all. The section may even be be empty. However section names must be unique. Parameters are specified in each section as Name=Value. Any spaces around the equals sign will be ignored, and the value extends to the end of the line [section] Parameter=Value Both the hash mark (#) and the semicolon (;) are comment characters. Lines that begin with either of these characters will be ignored. Any amount of whitespace may preceed the comment character. Multiline or multivalued fields may also be defined ala UNIX "here document" syntax: Parameter=<val('Section', 'Parameter'); If you want a multi-line/value field returned as an array, just specify an array as the receiver: @values = $cfg->val('Section', 'Parameter'); METHODS new (-file=>$filename, [-option=>value ...] ) Returns a new configuration object (or "undef" if the configuration file has an error). One IniConf object is required per configuration file. The following named parameters are available: *-default* section Specifies a section is used for default values. For example, if you look up the "permissions" parameter in the "users" section, but there is none, IniConf will look to your default section for a "permissions" value before returning undef. *-reloadsig* signame You may specify a signal (such as SIGHUP) that will cause the configuration file to be read. This is useful for static daemons where a full restart in order to realize a configuration change would be undesirable. Note that your application must be tolerant of the signal you choose. If a signal handler was already in place before the IniConf object is created, it will be called after the configuration file is reread. The signal handler will not be re- enabled until after the configuration file is reread any the previous signal handler returns. *-reloadwarn* 0|1 Set -reloadwarn => 1 to enable a warning message (output to STDERR) whenever the config file is reloaded. The reload message is of the form: PID reloading config file at YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM:SS See your system documentation for information on valid signals. *-nocase* 0|1 Set -nocase => 1 to handle the config file in a case- insensitive manner (case in values is preserved, however). By default, config files are case-sensitive (i.e., a section named 'Test' is not the same as a section named 'test'). Note that there is an added overhead for turning off case sensitivity. val ($section, $parameter) Returns the value of the specified parameter in section $section. setval ($section, $parameter, $value, [ $value2, ... ]) Sets the value of parameter $section in section $section to $value (or to a set of values). See below for methods to write the new configuration back out to a file. You may not set a parameter that didn't exist in the original configuration file. setval will return *undef* if this is attempted. Otherwise, it returns 1. newval($setion, $parameter, $value [, $value2, ...]) Adds a new value to the configuration file. delval($section, $parameter) Deletes the specified value from the configuration file ReadConfig Forces the config file to be re-read. Also see the *-reloadsig* option to the new method for a way to connect this method to a signal (such as SIGHUP). Sections Returns an array containing section names in the configuration file. If the *nocase* option was turned on when the config object was created, the section names will be returned in lowercase. Parameters ($sectionname) Returns an array containing the parameters contained in the specified section. GroupMembers ($group) Returns an array containing the members of specified $group. Groups are specified in the config file as new sections of the form [GroupName MemberName] This is useful for building up lists. Note that parameters within a "member" section are referenced normally (i.e., the section name is still "Groupname Membername", including the space). WriteConfig ($filename) Writes out a new copy of the configuration file. A temporary file (ending in .new) is written out and then renamed to the specified filename. Also see BUGS below. RewriteConfig Same as WriteConfig, but specifies that the original configuration file should be rewritten. DIAGNOSTICS @IniConf::errors Contains a list of errors encountered while parsing the configuration file. If the *new* method returns undef, check the value of this to find out what's wrong. This value is reset each time a config file is read. BUGS * IniConf won't know if you change the signal handler that it's using for config reloads. * The signal handling stuff is almost guaranteed not to work on non-UNIX systems. * The output from [Re]WriteConfig/OutputConfig might not be as pretty as it can be. Comments are tied to whatever was immediately below them. * No locking is done by [Re]WriteConfig. When writing servers, take care that only the parent ever calls this, and consider making your own backup. * The Windows INI specification (if there is one) probably isn't followed exactly. First and foremost, IniConf is for making easy-to-maintain (and read) configuration files. VERSION Version 0.96 AUTHOR Scott Hutton E-Mail: shutton@pobox.com WWW Home Page: http://www.pobox.com/~shutton/ Later hacked on by Rich Bowen E-Mail: rbowen@rcbowen.com URL: http://www.rcbowen.com/ Patches contributed by Bernie Cosell, Alex Satrapa, Scott Dellinger, Steve Campbell, R. Bernsteid, and various other generous people. Thanks. COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 1996,1997 Scott Hutton. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. To do In a soon-coming release, this code will move to the name `Config::IniFiles' This is because there are a lot of configuration modules that are floating around in various different name spaces. It would be nice if namespaces meant something. I don't know when that will be, but hopefully in the next few months.