Config::Auto - Magical config file parser
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
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
Returns an array ref of your configuration data, split by newlines.
Returns a filehandle, opened for reading, containing your configuration data.
This works even if you provided a plain text string or filename to parse.
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.
Returns a string representation of your configuration data.
$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"
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?
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' ],
...
};
This module is as light as possible on memory, only using modules when they are
absolutely needed for configuration file parsing.
- 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.
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.
Please report bugs or other issues to <
[email protected]>.
Versions 0.04 and higher of this module by Jos Boumans <
[email protected]>.
This module originally by Simon Cozens.
This library is free software; you may redistribute and/or modify it under the
same terms as Perl itself.