Provided by: libconfig-grammar-perl_1.13-5_all bug

NAME

       Config::Grammar - A grammar-based, user-friendly config parser

SYNOPSIS

        use Config::Grammar;

        my $args = { encoding => 'utf8' }; # the second parameter to parse() is optional
        my $parser = Config::Grammar->new(\%grammar);
        my $cfg = $parser->parse('app.cfg', $args) or die "ERROR: $parser->{err}\n";
        my $pod = $parser->makepod();
        my $ex = $parser->maketmpl('TOP','SubNode');
        my $minex = $parser->maketmplmin('TOP','SubNode');

DESCRIPTION

       Config::Grammar is a module to parse configuration files. The optional second parameter to
       the parse() method can be used to specify the file encoding to use for opening the file
       (see documentation for Perl's use open pragma).

       The configuration may consist of multiple-level sections with assignments and tabular
       data. The parsed data will be returned as a hash containing the whole configuration.
       Config::Grammar uses a grammar that is supplied upon creation of a Config::Grammar object
       to parse the configuration file and return helpful error messages in case of syntax
       errors. Using the makepod method you can generate documentation of the configuration file
       format.

       The maketmpl method can generate a template configuration file.  If your grammar contains
       regexp matches, the template will not be all that helpful as Config::Grammar is not smart
       enough to give you sensible template data based in regular expressions. The related
       function maketmplmin generates a minimal configuration template without examples, regexps
       or comments and thus allows an experienced user to fill in the configuration data more
       efficiently.

   Grammar Definition
       The grammar is a multiple-level hash of hashes, which follows the structure of the
       configuration. Each section or variable is represented by a hash with the same structure.
       Each hash contains special keys starting with an underscore such as '_sections', '_vars',
       '_sub' or '_re' to denote meta data with information about that section or variable. Other
       keys are used to structure the hash according to the same nesting structure of the
       configuration itself. The starting hash given as parameter to 'new' contains the "root
       section".

       Special Section Keys

       _sections   Array containing the list of sub-sections of this section. Each sub-section
                   must then be represented by a sub-hash in this hash with the same name of the
                   sub-section.

                   The sub-section can also be a regular expression denoted by the syntax '/re/',
                   where re is the regular-expression. In case a regular expression is used, a
                   sub-hash named with the same '/re/' must be included in this hash.

       _vars       Array containing the list of variables (assignments) in this section.
                   Analogous to sections, regular expressions can be used.

       _mandatory  Array containing the list of mandatory sections and variables.

       _inherited  Array containing the list of the variables that should be assigned the same
                   value as in the parent section if nothing is specified here.

       _table      Hash containing the table grammar (see Special Table Keys). If not specified,
                   no table is allowed in this section. The grammar of the columns if specified
                   by sub-hashes named with the column number.

       _text       Section contains free-form text. Only sections and @includes statements will
                   be interpreted, the rest will be added in the returned hash under '_text' as
                   string.

                   _text is a hash reference which can contain a _re and a _re_error key which
                   will be used to scrutanize the text ... if the hash is empty, all text will be
                   accepted.

       _order      If defined, a '_order' element will be put in every hash containing the
                   sections with a number that determines the order in which the sections were
                   defined.

       _doc        Describes what this section is about

       _sub        A function pointer. It is called for every instance of this section, with the
                   real name of the section passed as its first argument. This is probably only
                   useful for the regexp sections. If the function returns a defined value it is
                   assumed that the test was not successful and an error is generated with the
                   returned string as content.

       Special Variable Keys

       _re         Regular expression upon which the value will be checked.

       _re_error   String containing the returned error in case the regular expression doesn't
                   match (if not specified, a generic 'syntax error' message will be returned).

       _sub        A function pointer. It called for every value, with the value passed as its
                   first argument. If the function returns a defined value it is assumed that the
                   test was not successful and an error is generated with the returned string as
                   content.

                   If the '_varlist' key (see above) is defined in this section, the '_sub'
                   function will also receive an array reference as the second argument. The
                   array contains a list of those variables already defined in the same section.
                   This can be used to enforce the order of the variables.

       _default    A default value that will be assigned to the variable if none is specified or
                   inherited.

       _doc        Description of the variable.

       _example    A one line example for the content of this variable.

       Special Table Keys

       _columns    Number of columns. If not specified, it will not be enforced.

       _key        If defined, the specified column number will be used as key in a hash in the
                   returned hash. If not defined, the returned hash will contain a '_table'
                   element with the contents of the table as array. The rows of the tables are
                   stored as arrays.

       _sub        they work analog to the description in the previous section.

       _doc        describes the content of the column.

       _example    example for the content of this column

       Special Text Keys

       _re         Regular expression upon which the text will be checked (everything as a single
                   line).

       _re_error   String containing the returned error in case the regular expression doesn't
                   match (if not specified, a generic 'syntax error' message will be returned).

       _sub        they work analog to the description in the previous section.

       _doc        Ditto.

       _example    Potential multi line example for the content of this text section

   Configuration Syntax
       General Syntax

       '#' denotes a comment up to the end-of-line, empty lines are allowed and space at the
       beginning and end of lines is trimmed.

       '\' at the end of the line marks a continued line on the next line. A single space will be
       inserted between the concatenated lines.

       '@include filename' is used to include another file. Include works relative to the
       directory where the parent file is in.

       '@define a some value' will replace all occurrences of 'a' in the following text with
       'some value'.

       Fields in tables that contain white space can be enclosed in either "'" or """.
       Whitespace can also be escaped with "\". Quotes inside quotes are allowed but must be
       escaped with a backslash as well.

       Sections

       Config::Grammar supports hierarchical configurations through sections, whose syntax is as
       follows:

       Level 1        *** section name ***

       Level 2        + section name

       Level 3        ++ section name

       Level n, n>1   +..+ section name (number of '+' determines level)

       Assignments

       Assignments take the form: 'variable = value', where value can be any string (can contain
       whitespaces and special characters). The spaces before and after the equal sign are
       optional.

       Tabular Data

       The data is interpreted as one or more columns separated by spaces.

   Example
       Code

        use Data::Dumper;
        use Config::Grammar;

        my $RE_IP       = '\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+';
        my $RE_MAC      = '[0-9a-f]{2}(?::[0-9a-f]{2}){5}';
        my $RE_HOST     = '\S+';

        my $parser = Config::Grammar->new({
          _sections => [ 'network', 'hosts' ],
          network => {
             _vars     => [ 'dns' ],
             _sections => [ "/$RE_IP/" ],
             dns       => {
                _doc => "address of the dns server",
                _example => "ns1.oetiker.xs",
                _re => $RE_HOST,
                _re_error =>
                   'dns must be an host name or ip address',
                },
             "/$RE_IP/" => {
                _doc    => "Ip Adress",
                _example => '10.2.3.2',
                _vars   => [ 'netmask', 'gateway' ],
                netmask => {
                   _doc => "Netmask",
                   _example => "255.255.255.0",
                   _re => $RE_IP,
                   _re_error =>
                      'netmask must be a dotted ip address'
                   },
                gateway => {
                   _doc => "Default Gateway address in IP notation",
                   _example => "10.22.12.1",
                   _re => $RE_IP,
                   _re_error =>
                      'gateway must be a dotted ip address' },
                },
             },
          hosts => {
             _doc => "Details about the hosts",
             _table  => {
                 _doc => "Description of all the Hosts",
                _key => 0,
                _columns => 3,
                0 => {
                   _doc => "Ethernet Address",
                   _example => "0:3:3:d:a:3:dd:a:cd",
                   _re => $RE_MAC,
                   _re_error =>
                      'first column must be an ethernet mac address',
                   },
                1 => {
                   _doc => "IP Address",
                   _example => "10.11.23.1",
                   _re => $RE_IP,
                   _re_error =>
                      'second column must be a dotted ip address',
                   },
                2 => {
                   _doc => "Host Name",
                   _example => "tardis",
                    },
                },
             },
          });

        my $args = { encoding => 'utf8' }; # the second parameter to parse() is optional
        my $cfg = $parser->parse('test.cfg', $args) or
          die "ERROR: $parser->{err}\n";
        print Dumper($cfg);
        print $parser->makepod;

       Configuration

        *** network ***

          dns      = 192.168.7.87

        + 192.168.7.64

          netmask  = 255.255.255.192
          gateway  = 192.168.7.65

        *** hosts ***

          00:50:fe:bc:65:11     192.168.7.97    plain.hades
          00:50:fe:bc:65:12     192.168.7.98    isg.ee.hades
          00:50:fe:bc:65:14     192.168.7.99    isg.ee.hades

       Result

        {
          'hosts' => {
                       '00:50:fe:bc:65:11' => [
                                                '00:50:fe:bc:65:11',
                                                '192.168.7.97',
                                                'plain.hades'
                                              ],
                       '00:50:fe:bc:65:12' => [
                                                '00:50:fe:bc:65:12',
                                                '192.168.7.98',
                                                'isg.ee.hades'
                                              ],
                       '00:50:fe:bc:65:14' => [
                                                '00:50:fe:bc:65:14',
                                                '192.168.7.99',
                                                'isg.ee.hades'
                                              ]
                     },
          'network' => {
                         '192.168.7.64' => {
                                             'netmask' => '255.255.255.192',
                                             'gateway' => '192.168.7.65'
                                           },
                         'dns' => '192.168.7.87'
                       }
        };

SEE ALSO

       Config::Grammar::Dynamic

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 2000-2005 by ETH Zurich. All rights reserved.  Copyright (c) 2007 by David
       Schweikert. All rights reserved.

LICENSE

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

AUTHORS

       David Schweikert, Tobias Oetiker, Niko Tyni