NAME Config::Simple::Conf - A fast and lightweight configuration file handler DESCRIPTION The idea behind Config::Simple::Conf came from various INI style parsers I've used in the past. In general these have worked well with the exception of lack of complex configuration handling. Config::Simple for example fails to account for common cases which are extremely useful in any configuration file. These include useful handling of duplicate keys (currently Config::Simple blows them away without any notice), and second, internal macros. In many of my usage cases I want something like your standard .INI file format, with the above mentioned exceptions. # Define a configuration section [core section] # Define an entry in core section path = /root/to/my/stuff # Define a new configuration file section [section name] # Define an entry list and use the value from another section to complete # the configuration path = [core section: path]/abc path = [core section: path]/xyz Such a configuration would allow me to do two things, establish a core path argument, which is then used in other sections, and have a section with multiple duplicate entires as a list. An example of the code here would look something like: #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use Config::Simple::Conf; my $conf = Config::Simple::Conf->new('/path/to/my.conf'); print "My root is: " . $conf->value('core section', 'path') . "\n"; print "My section paths are:\n"; for($conf->value('section name', 'path')){ print "\t$_\n"; } With the resulting output looking something like: My root is: /root/to/my/stuff My section paths are: /root/to/my/stuff/abc /root/to/my/stuff/xyz SYNOPSIS use Config::Simple::Conf; my $conf = Config::Simple::Conf->new('/etc/Something/Example.conf'); print $conf->value('global', 'example_key'); CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT See examples/ directory for various configuration file examples METHODS new() Config::Simple::Conf->new(FILE, CFHASH) Generate / Regenerate the configuration hash reference based on on standard Ruckus configuration files and options. FILE - The configuratino file to process, if undefined @ARGV will be processed for arguments. CFHASH - An existing configuraiton hash generated by Config::Simple::Conf in which data should be appended to. Returns a hash reference with two types of values: A standard string "abc", and array reference ["a","b","c"]. In cases of unique keys data is stored as a string. In cases were there are multiple duplicate keys data is stored in an array reference. Keys may make use of other keys values with in the key value. Example: [example] # sets [example:abc] to '123' abc = 123 # sets [efg] to '123' efg = [example:abc] # sets [example:list] to [1, 2, 3] list = 1 list = 2 list = 3 When making use of other key's values (as explainded in the example above) the embedded key '[abc]' MUST be unique. Using embedded keys in a listing context is not allowed and will result in an fatal error. In some cases configuration files may need to include other configuration files. The way this is done is via a speical key called 'include'. The same file will be automatically execluded if it's detected multiple times. value(SECTION, KEY) Retrieve a configuration value or list from SECTION for KEY keyname. By rule, entries outside of a section are 'global', entries within the CLI arguments list are in section 'argv' islist(SECTION, KEY) Return true if the SECTION's KEY is a list of entries sections() Return a list of available sections keys(SECTION) Return the keys for a given section AUTHOR Colin Faber LICENSE AND COPYTIGHT Copyright 2016 (C) Colin Faber This library is licensed under the Perl Artistic license and may be freely used and distributed under the terms of Perl itself. perl v5.18.2 2016-04-25 Config::Simple::Conf(3)