Provided by: libconfig-auto-perl_0.44-1_all 
NAME
Config::Auto - Magical config file parser
SYNOPSIS
use Config::Auto;
### Not very magical at all.
$config = Config::Auto::parse("myprogram.conf", format => "colon");
### Considerably more magical.
$config = Config::Auto::parse("myprogram.conf");
### Highly magical.
$config = Config::Auto::parse();
### Using the OO interface
$ca = Config::Auto->new( source => $text );
$ca = Config::Auto->new( source => $fh );
$ca = Config::Auto->new( source => $filename );
$href = $ca->score; # compute the score for various formats
$config = $ca->parse; # parse the config
$format = $ca->format; # detected (or provided) config format
$str = $ca->as_string; # config file stringified
$fh = $ca->fh; # config file handle
$file = $ca->file; # config filename
$aref = $ca->data; # data from your config, split by newlines
DESCRIPTION
This module was written after having to write Yet Another Config File Parser for some
variety of colon-separated config. I decided "never again".
Config::Auto aims to be the most "DWIM" config parser available, by detecting
configuration styles, include paths and even config filenames automagically.
See the "HOW IT WORKS" section below on implementation details.
ACCESSORS
@formats = Config::Auto->formats
Returns a list of supported formats for your config files. These formats are also the keys
as used by the "score()" method.
"Config::Auto" recognizes the following formats:
• perl => perl code
• colon => colon separated (e.g., key:value)
• space => space separated (e.g., key value)
• equal => equal separated (e.g., key=value)
• bind => bind style (not available)
• irssi => irssi style (not available)
• xml => xml (via XML::Simple)
• ini => .ini format (via Config::IniFiles)
• list => list (e.g., foo bar baz)
• yaml => yaml (via YAML.pm)
METHODS
$obj = Config::Auto->new( [source => $text|$fh|$filename, path => \@paths, format =>
FORMAT_NAME] );
Returns a "Config::Auto" object based on your configs source. This can either be:
a filehandle
Any opened filehandle, or "IO::Handle"/"IO::String" object.
a plain text string
Any plain string containing one or more newlines.
a filename
Any plain string pointing to a file on disk
nothing
A heuristic will be applied to find your config file, based on the name of your
script; $0.
Although "Config::Auto" is at its most magical when called with no parameters, its
behavior can be controlled explicitly by using one or two arguments.
If a filename is passed as the "source" argument, the same paths are checked, but
"Config::Auto" will look for a file with the passed name instead of the $0-based names.
Supplying the "path" parameter will add additional directories to the search paths. The
current directory is searched first, then the paths specified with the path parameter.
"path" can either be a scalar or a reference to an array of paths to check.
The "format" parameters forces "Config::Auto" to interpret the contents of the
configuration file in the given format without trying to guess.
$rv = $obj->parse | Config::Auto::parse( [$text|$fh|$filename, path => \@paths, format =>
FORMAT_NAME] );
Parses the source you provided in the "new()" call and returns a data structure
representing your configuration file.
You can also call it in a procedural context ("Config::Auto::parse()"), where the first
argument is the source, and the following arguments are named. This function is provided
for backwards compatiblity with releases prior to 0.29.
$href = $obj->score;
Takes a look at the contents of your configuration data and produces a 'score' determining
which format it most likely contains.
They keys are equal to formats as returned by the "Config::Auto->formats" and their values
are a score between 1 and 100. The format with the highest score will be used to parse
your configuration data, unless you provided the "format" option explicitly to the "new()"
method.
$aref = $obj->data;
Returns an array ref of your configuration data, split by newlines.
$fh = $obj->fh;
Returns a filehandle, opened for reading, containing your configuration data. This works
even if you provided a plain text string or filename to parse.
$filename = $obj->file;
Returns a filename containing your configuration data. This works even if you provided a
plaintext string or filehandle to parse. In that case, a temporary file will be written
holding your configuration data.
$str = $obj->as_string;
Returns a string representation of your configuration data.
GLOBAL VARIABLES
$DisablePerl
Set this variable to true if you do not wish to "eval" perl style configuration files.
Default is "false"
$Untaint
Set this variable to true if you automatically want to untaint values obtained from a perl
style configuration. See "perldoc perlsec" for details on tainting.
Default is "false"
$Debug
Set this variable to true to get extra debug information from "Config::Auto" when finding
and/or parsing config files fails.
Default is "false"
HOW IT WORKS
When you call "Config::Auto->new" or "Config::Auto::parse" with no arguments, we first
look at $0 to determine the program's name. Let's assume that's "snerk". We look for the
following files:
snerkconfig
~/snerkconfig
/etc/snerkconfig
/usr/local/etc/snerkconfig
snerk.config
~/snerk.config
/etc/snerk.config
/usr/local/etc/snerk.config
snerkrc
~/snerkrc
/etc/snerkrc
/usr/local/etc/snerkrc
.snerkrc
~/.snerkrc
/etc/.snerkrc
/usr/local/etc/.snerkrc
Additional search paths can be specified with the "path" option.
We take the first one we find, and examine it to determine what format it's in. The
algorithm used is a heuristic "which is a fancy way of saying that it doesn't work." (Mark
Dominus.) We know about colon separated, space separated, equals separated, XML, Perl
code, Windows INI, BIND9 and irssi style config files. If it chooses the wrong one, you
can force it with the "format" option.
If you don't want it ever to detect and execute config files which are made up of Perl
code, set "$Config::Auto::DisablePerl = 1".
When using the perl format, your configuration file will be eval'd. This will cause taint
errors. To avoid these warnings, set "$Config::Auto::Untaint = 1". This setting will not
untaint the data in your configuration file and should only be used if you trust the
source of the filename.
Then the file is parsed and a data structure is returned. Since we're working magic, we
have to do the best we can under the circumstances - "You rush a miracle man, you get
rotten miracles." (Miracle Max) So there are no guarantees about the structure that's
returned. If you have a fairly regular config file format, you'll get a regular data
structure back. If your config file is confusing, so will the return structure be. Isn't
life tragic?
EXAMPLES
Here's what we make of some common Unix config files:
/etc/resolv.conf:
$VAR1 = {
'nameserver' => [ '163.1.2.1', '129.67.1.1', '129.67.1.180' ],
'search' => [ 'oucs.ox.ac.uk', 'ox.ac.uk' ]
};
/etc/passwd:
$VAR1 = {
'root' => [ 'x', '0', '0', 'root', '/root', '/bin/bash' ],
...
};
/etc/gpm.conf:
$VAR1 = {
'append' => '""',
'responsiveness' => '',
'device' => '/dev/psaux',
'type' => 'ps2',
'repeat_type' => 'ms3'
};
/etc/nsswitch.conf:
$VAR1 = {
'netgroup' => 'nis',
'passwd' => 'compat',
'hosts' => [ 'files', 'dns' ],
...
};
MEMORY USAGE
This module is as light as possible on memory, only using modules when they are absolutely
needed for configuration file parsing.
TROUBLESHOOTING
When using a Perl config file, the configuration is borked
Give "Config::Auto" more hints (e.g., add #!/usr/bin/perl to beginning of file) or
indicate the format in the "new"/"parse()" command.
TODO
BIND9 and irssi file format parsers currently don't exist. It would be good to add support
for "mutt" and "vim" style "set"-based RCs.
BUG REPORTS
Please report bugs or other issues to <bug-config-auto@rt.cpan.org>.
AUTHOR
Versions 0.04 and higher of this module by Jos Boumans <kane@cpan.org>.
This module originally by Simon Cozens.
COPYRIGHT
This library is free software; you may redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms
as Perl itself.