1Config::IniFiles(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Config::IniFiles(3)
2
6 Config::IniFiles - A module for reading .ini-style configuration files.
7
9 version 3.000003
10
12 use Config::IniFiles;
13 my $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => "/path/configfile.ini" );
14 print "The value is " . $cfg->val( 'Section', 'Parameter' ) . "."
15 if $cfg->val( 'Section', 'Parameter' );
16
18 Config::IniFiles provides a way to have readable configuration files
19 outside your Perl script. Configurations can be imported (inherited,
20 stacked,...), sections can be grouped, and settings can be accessed
21 from a tied hash.
22
24 INI files consist of a number of sections, each preceded with the
25 section name in square brackets, followed by parameter names and their
26 values.
27 [a section]
29 Parameter=Value
30 [section 2]
32 AnotherParameter=Some value
33 Setting=Something else
34 Parameter=Different scope than the one in the first section
35 The first non-blank character of the line indicating a section must be
37 a left bracket and the last non-blank character of a line indicating a
38 section must be a right bracket. The characters making up the section
39 name can be any symbols at all. However section names must be unique.
40 Parameters are specified in each section as Name=Value. Any spaces
42 around the equals sign will be ignored, and the value extends to the
43 end of the line (including any whitespace at the end of the line.
44 Parameter names are localized to the namespace of the section, but must
45 be unique within a section.
46 Both the hash mark (#) and the semicolon (;) are comment characters.
48 by default (this can be changed by configuration). Lines that begin
49 with either of these characters will be ignored. Any amount of
50 whitespace may precede the comment character.
51 Multi-line or multi-valued parameters may also be defined ala UNIX
53 "here document" syntax:
54 Parameter=<<EOT
56 value/line 1
57 value/line 2
58 EOT
59 You may use any string you want in place of "EOT". Note that whatever
61 follows the "<<" and what appears at the end of the text MUST match
62 exactly, including any trailing whitespace.
63 Alternately, as a configuration option (default is off), continuation
65 lines can be allowed:
66 [Section]
68 Parameter=this parameter \
69 spreads across \
70 a few lines
71
73 Get a new Config::IniFiles object with the new method:
74 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => "/path/config_file.ini" );
76 $cfg = new Config::IniFiles -file => "/path/config_file.ini";
77 Optional named parameters may be specified after the configuration file
79 name. See the new in the METHODS section, below.
80 Values from the config file are fetched with the val method:
82 $value = $cfg->val('Section', 'Parameter');
84 If you want a multi-line/value field returned as an array, just specify
86 an array as the receiver:
87 @values = $cfg->val('Section', 'Parameter');
89
91 new ( [-option=>value ...] )
92 Returns a new configuration object (or "undef" if the configuration
93 file has an error, in which case check the global
94 @Config::IniFiles::errors array for reasons why). One Config::IniFiles
95 object is required per configuration file. The following named
96 parameters are available:
97 -file filename
99 Specifies a file to load the parameters from. This 'file' may
100 actually be any of the following things:
101 1) the pathname of a file
103 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
105 2) a simple filehandle
107 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => STDIN );
109 3) a filehandle glob
111 open( CONFIG, "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
113 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => *CONFIG );
114 4) a reference to a glob
116 open( CONFIG, "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
118 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => \*CONFIG );
119 5) an IO::File object
121 $io = IO::File->new( "/path/to/config_file.ini" );
123 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => $io );
124 or
126 open my $fh, '<', "/path/to/config_file.ini" or die $!;
128 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => $fh );
129 6) A reference to a scalar (requires newer versions of IO::Scalar)
131 $ini_file_contents = <<EOT
133 [section name]
134 Parameter=A value
135 Setting=Another value
136 EOT
137 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => \$ini_file_contents );
139 If this option is not specified, (i.e. you are creating a
141 config file from scratch) you must specify a target file
142 using SetFileName in order to save the parameters.
143 -default section
145 Specifies a section to be used for default values. For
146 example, in the following configuration file, if you look up
147 the "permissions" parameter in the "joe" section, there is
148 none.
149 [all]
151 permissions=Nothing
152 [jane]
154 name=Jane
155 permissions=Open files
156 [joe]
158 name=Joseph
159 If you create your Config::IniFiles object with a default
161 section of "all" like this:
162 $cfg = Config::IniFiles->new( -file => "file.ini", -default => "all" );
164 Then requesting a value for a "permissions" in the [joe]
166 section will check for a value from [all] before returning
167 undef.
168 $permissions = $cfg->val( "joe", "permissions"); // returns "Nothing"
170 -fallback section
172 Specifies a section to be used for parameters outside a
173 section. Default is none. Without -fallback specified (which
174 is the default), reading a configuration file which has a
175 parameter outside a section will fail. With this set to, say,
176 "GENERAL", this configuration:
177 wrong=wronger
179 [joe]
181 name=Joseph
182 will be assumed as:
184 [GENERAL]
186 wrong=wronger
187 [joe]
189 name=Joseph
190 Note that Config::IniFiles will also omit the fallback
192 section header when outputting such configuration.
193 -nocase 0|1
195 Set -nocase => 1 to handle the config file in a case-
196 insensitive manner (case in values is preserved, however).
197 By default, config files are case-sensitive (i.e., a section
198 named 'Test' is not the same as a section named 'test').
199 Note that there is an added overhead for turning off case
200 sensitivity.
201 -import object
203 This allows you to import or inherit existing setting from
204 another Config::IniFiles object. When importing settings from
205 another object, sections with the same name will be merged
206 and parameters that are defined in both the imported object
207 and the -file will take the value of given in the -file.
208 If a -default section is also given on this call, and it does
210 not coincide with the default of the imported object, the new
211 default section will be used instead. If no -default section
212 is given, then the default of the imported object will be
213 used.
214 -allowcontinue 0|1
216 Set -allowcontinue => 1 to enable continuation lines in the
217 config file. i.e. if a line ends with a backslash "\", then
218 the following line is appended to the parameter value,
219 dropping the backslash and the newline character(s).
220 Default behavior is to keep a trailing backslash "\" as a
222 parameter value. Note that continuation cannot be mixed with
223 the "here" value syntax.
224 -allowempty 0|1
226 If set to 1, then empty files are allowed at ReadConfig time.
227 If set to 0 (the default), an empty configuration file is
228 considered an error.
229 -negativedeltas 0|1
231 If set to 1 (the default if importing this object from
232 another one), parses and honors lines of the following form
233 in the configuration file:
234 ; [somesection] is deleted
236 or
238 [inthissection]
240 ; thisparameter is deleted
241 If set to 0 (the default if not importing), these comments
243 are treated like ordinary ones.
244 The WriteConfig1)> form will output such comments to indicate
246 deleted sections or parameters. This way, reloading a delta
247 file using the same imported object produces the same results
248 in memory again. See " DELTA FEATURES" in IMPORT for more
249 details.
250 -commentchar 'char'
252 The default comment character is "#". You may change this by
253 specifying this option to another character. This can be any
254 character except alphanumeric characters, square brackets or
255 the "equal" sign.
256 -allowedcommentchars 'chars'
258 Allowed default comment characters are "#" and ";". By
259 specifying this option you may change the range of characters
260 that are used to denote a comment line to include any set of
261 characters
262 Note: that the character specified by -commentchar (see
264 above) is always part of the allowed comment characters.
265 Note 2: The given string is evaluated as a regular expression
267 character class, so '\' must be escaped if you wish to use
268 it.
269 -reloadwarn 0|1
271 Set -reloadwarn => 1 to enable a warning message (output to
272 STDERR) whenever the config file is reloaded. The reload
273 message is of the form:
274 PID <PID> reloading config file <file> at YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM:SS
276 Default behavior is to not warn (i.e. -reloadwarn => 0).
278 This is generally only useful when using Config::IniFiles in
280 a server or daemon application. The application is still
281 responsible for determining when the object is to be
282 reloaded.
283 -nomultiline 0|1
285 Set -nomultiline => 1 to output multi-valued parameter as:
286 param=value1
288 param=value2
289 instead of the default:
291 param=<<EOT
293 value1
294 value2
295 EOT
296 As the latter might not be compatible with all applications.
298 -handle_trailing_comment 0|1
300 Set -handle_trailing_comment => 1 to enable support of
301 parameter trailing comments.
302 For example, if we have a parameter line like this:
304 param1=value1;comment1
306 by default, handle_trailing_comment will be set to 0, and we
308 will get value1;comment1 as the value of param1. If we have
309 -handle_trailing_comment set to 1, then we will get value1 as
310 the value for param1, and comment1 as the trailing comment of
311 param1.
312 Set and get methods for trailing comments are provided as
314 "SetParameterTrailingComment" and
315 "GetParameterTrailingComment".
316 -php_compat 0|1
318 Set -php_compat => 1 to enable support for PHP like
319 configfiles.
320 The differences between parse_ini_file and Config::IniFiles
322 are:
323 # parse_ini_file
325 [group]
326 val1="value"
327 val2[]=1
328 val2[]=2
329 vs
331 # Config::IniFiles
333 [group]
334 val1=value
335 val2=1
336 val2=2
337 This option only affect parsing, not writing new configfiles.
339 Some features from parse_ini_file are not compatible:
341 [group]
343 val1="val"'ue'
344 val1[key]=1
345 val ($section, $parameter [, $default] )
347 Returns the value of the specified parameter ($parameter) in section
348 $section, returns undef (or $default if specified) if no section or no
349 parameter for the given section exists.
350 If you want a multi-line/value field returned as an array, just specify
352 an array as the receiver:
353 @values = $cfg->val('Section', 'Parameter');
355 A multi-line/value field that is returned in a scalar context will be
357 joined using $/ (input record separator, default is \n) if defined,
358 otherwise the values will be joined using \n.
359 exists($section, $parameter)
361 True if and only if there exists a section $section, with a parameter
362 $parameter inside, not counting default values.
363 push ($section, $parameter, $value, [ $value2, ...])
365 Pushes new values at the end of existing value(s) of parameter
366 $parameter in section $section. See below for methods to write the new
367 configuration back out to a file.
368 You may not set a parameter that didn't exist in the original
370 configuration file. push will return undef if this is attempted. See
371 newval below to do this. Otherwise, it returns 1.
372 setval ($section, $parameter, $value, [ $value2, ... ])
374 Sets the value of parameter $parameter in section $section to $value
375 (or to a set of values). See below for methods to write the new
376 configuration back out to a file.
377 You may not set a parameter that didn't exist in the original
379 configuration file. setval will return undef if this is attempted. See
380 newval below to do this. Otherwise, it returns 1.
381 newval($section, $parameter, $value [, $value2, ...])
383 Assigns a new value, $value (or set of values) to the parameter
384 $parameter in section $section in the configuration file.
385 delval($section, $parameter)
387 Deletes the specified parameter from the configuration file
388 ReadConfig
390 Forces the configuration file to be re-read. Returns undef if the file
391 can not be opened, no filename was defined (with the "-file" option)
392 when the object was constructed, or an error occurred while reading.
393 If an error occurs while parsing the INI file the
395 @Config::IniFiles::errors array will contain messages that might help
396 you figure out where the problem is in the file.
397 Sections
399 Returns an array containing section names in the configuration file.
400 If the nocase option was turned on when the config object was created,
401 the section names will be returned in lowercase.
402 SectionExists ( $sect_name )
404 Returns 1 if the specified section exists in the INI file, 0 otherwise
405 (undefined if section_name is not defined).
406 AddSection ( $sect_name )
408 Ensures that the named section exists in the INI file. If the section
409 already exists, nothing is done. In this case, the "new" section will
410 possibly contain data already.
411 If you really need to have a new section with no parameters in it,
413 check that the name that you're adding isn't in the list of sections
414 already.
415 DeleteSection ( $sect_name )
417 Completely removes the entire section from the configuration.
418 RenameSection ( $old_section_name, $new_section_name,
420 $include_groupmembers)
421 Renames a section if it does not already exist, optionally including
422 groupmembers
423 CopySection ( $old_section_name, $new_section_name, $include_groupmembers)
425 Copies one section to another optionally including groupmembers
426 Parameters ($sect_name)
428 Returns an array containing the parameters contained in the specified
429 section.
430 Groups
432 Returns an array containing the names of available groups.
433 Groups are specified in the config file as new sections of the form
435 [GroupName MemberName]
437 This is useful for building up lists. Note that parameters within a
439 "member" section are referenced normally (i.e., the section name is
440 still "Groupname Membername", including the space) - the concept of
441 Groups is to aid people building more complex configuration files.
442 SetGroupMember ( $sect )
444 Makes sure that the specified section is a member of the appropriate
445 group.
446 Only intended for use in newval.
448 RemoveGroupMember ( $sect )
450 Makes sure that the specified section is no longer a member of the
451 appropriate group. Only intended for use in DeleteSection.
452 GroupMembers ($group)
454 Returns an array containing the members of specified $group. Each
455 element of the array is a section name. For example, given the sections
456 [Group Element 1]
458 ...
459 [Group Element 2]
461 ...
462 GroupMembers would return ("Group Element 1", "Group Element 2").
464 SetWriteMode ($mode)
466 Sets the mode (permissions) to use when writing the INI file.
467 $mode must be a string representation of the octal mode.
469 GetWriteMode ($mode)
471 Gets the current mode (permissions) to use when writing the INI file.
472 $mode is a string representation of the octal mode.
474 WriteConfig ($filename [, %options])
476 Writes out a new copy of the configuration file. A temporary file is
477 written out and then renamed to the specified filename. Also see BUGS
478 below.
479 If "-delta" is set to a true value in %options, and this object was
481 imported from another (see "new"), only the differences between this
482 object and the imported one will be recorded. Negative deltas will be
483 encoded into comments, so that a subsequent invocation of new() with
484 the same imported object produces the same results (see the
485 -negativedeltas option in "new").
486 %options is not required.
488 Returns true on success, "undef" on failure.
490 RewriteConfig
492 Same as WriteConfig, but specifies that the original configuration file
493 should be rewritten.
494 GetFileName
496 Returns the filename associated with this INI file.
497 If no filename has been specified, returns undef.
499 SetFileName ($filename)
501 If you created the Config::IniFiles object without initialising from a
502 file, or if you just want to change the name of the file to use for
503 ReadConfig/RewriteConfig from now on, use this method.
504 Returns $filename if that was a valid name, undef otherwise.
506 $ini->OutputConfigToFileHandle($fh, $delta)
508 Writes OutputConfig to the $fh filehandle. $delta should be set to 1 1
509 if writing only delta. This is a newer and safer version of
510 "OutputConfig()" and one is encouraged to use it instead.
511 $ini->OutputConfig($delta)
513 Writes OutputConfig to STDOUT. Use select() to redirect STDOUT to the
514 output target before calling this function. Optional argument should be
515 set to 1 if writing only a delta. Also see OutputConfigToFileHandle
516 SetSectionComment($section, @comment)
518 Sets the comment for section $section to the lines contained in
519 @comment.
520 Each comment line will be prepended with the comment character (default
522 is "#") if it doesn't already have a comment character (ie: if the line
523 does not start with whitespace followed by an allowed comment
524 character, default is "#" and ";").
525 To clear a section comment, use DeleteSectionComment ($section)
527 GetSectionComment ($section)
529 Returns a list of lines, being the comment attached to section
530 $section. In scalar context, returns a string containing the lines of
531 the comment separated by newlines.
532 The lines are presented as-is, with whatever comment character was
534 originally used on that line.
535 DeleteSectionComment ($section)
537 Removes the comment for the specified section.
538 SetParameterComment ($section, $parameter, @comment)
540 Sets the comment attached to a particular parameter.
541 Any line of @comment that does not have a comment character will be
543 prepended with one. See "SetSectionComment($section, @comment)" above
544 GetParameterComment ($section, $parameter)
546 Gets the comment attached to a parameter. In list context returns all
547 comments - in scalar context returns them joined by newlines.
548 DeleteParameterComment ($section, $parameter)
550 Deletes the comment attached to a parameter.
551 GetParameterEOT ($section, $parameter)
553 Accessor method for the EOT text (in fact, style) of the specified
554 parameter. If any text is used as an EOT mark, this will be returned.
555 If the parameter was not recorded using HERE style multiple lines,
556 GetParameterEOT returns undef.
557 $cfg->SetParameterEOT ($section, $parameter, $EOT)
559 Accessor method for the EOT text for the specified parameter. Sets the
560 HERE style marker text to the value $EOT. Once the EOT text is set,
561 that parameter will be saved in HERE style.
562 To un-set the EOT text, use DeleteParameterEOT ($section, $parameter).
564 DeleteParameterEOT ($section, $parameter)
566 Removes the EOT marker for the given section and parameter. When
567 writing a configuration file, if no EOT marker is defined then "EOT" is
568 used.
569 SetParameterTrailingComment ($section, $parameter, $cmt)
571 Set the end trailing comment for the given section and parameter. If
572 there is a old comment for the parameter, it will be overwritten by the
573 new one.
574 If there is a new parameter trailing comment to be added, the value
576 should be added first.
577 GetParameterTrailingComment ($section, $parameter)
579 An accessor method to read the trailing comment after the parameter.
580 The trailing comment will be returned if there is one. A null string
581 will be returned if the parameter exists but there is no comment for
582 it. otherwise, undef will be returned.
583 Delete
585 Deletes the entire configuration file in memory.
586
588 tie %ini, 'Config::IniFiles', (-file=>$filename, [-option=>value ...] )
589 Using "tie", you can tie a hash to a Config::IniFiles object. This
590 creates a new object which you can access through your hash, so you use
591 this instead of the new method. This actually creates a hash of hashes
592 to access the values in the INI file. The options you provide through
593 "tie" are the same as given for the new method, above.
594 Here's an example:
596 use Config::IniFiles;
598 my %ini;
600 tie %ini, 'Config::IniFiles', ( -file => "/path/configfile.ini" );
601 print "We have $ini{Section}{Parameter}." if $ini{Section}{Parameter};
603 Accessing and using the hash works just like accessing a regular hash
605 and many of the object methods are made available through the hash
606 interface.
607 For those methods that do not coincide with the hash paradigm, you can
609 use the Perl "tied" function to get at the underlying object tied to
610 the hash and call methods on that object. For example, to write the
611 hash out to a new ini file, you would do something like this:
612 tied( %ini )->WriteConfig( "/newpath/newconfig.ini" ) ||
614 die "Could not write settings to new file.";
615 $val = $ini{$section}{$parameter}
617 Returns the value of $parameter in $section.
618 Multiline values accessed through a hash will be returned as a list in
620 list context and a concatenated value in scalar context.
621 $ini{$section}{$parameter} = $value;
623 Sets the value of $parameter in $section to $value.
624 To set a multiline or multi-value parameter just assign an array
626 reference to the hash entry, like this:
627 $ini{$section}{$parameter} = [$value1, $value2, ...];
629 If the parameter did not exist in the original file, it will be
631 created. However, Perl does not seem to extend autovivification to tied
632 hashes. That means that if you try to say
633 $ini{new_section}{new_paramters} = $val;
635 and the section 'new_section' does not exist, then Perl won't properly
637 create it. In order to work around this you will need to create a hash
638 reference in that section and then assign the parameter value.
639 Something like this should do nicely:
640 $ini{new_section} = {};
642 $ini{new_section}{new_paramters} = $val;
643 %hash = %{$ini{$section}}
645 Using the tie interface, you can copy whole sections of the ini file
646 into another hash. Note that this makes a copy of the entire section.
647 The new hash in no longer tied to the ini file, In particular, this
648 means -default and -nocase settings will not apply to %hash.
649 $ini{$section} = {}; %{$ini{$section}} = %parameters;
651 Through the hash interface, you have the ability to replace the entire
652 section with a new set of parameters. This call will fail, however, if
653 the argument passed in NOT a hash reference. You must use both lines,
654 as shown above so that Perl recognizes the section as a hash reference
655 context before COPYing over the values from your %parameters hash.
656 delete $ini{$section}{$parameter}
658 When tied to a hash, you can use the Perl "delete" function to
659 completely remove a parameter from a section.
660 delete $ini{$section}
662 The tied interface also allows you to delete an entire section from the
663 ini file using the Perl "delete" function.
664 %ini = ();
666 If you really want to delete all the items in the ini file, this will
667 do it. Of course, the changes won't be written to the actual file
668 unless you call RewriteConfig on the object tied to the hash.
669 Parameter names
671 my @keys = keys %{$ini{$section}}
672 while (($k, $v) = each %{$ini{$section}}) {...}
673 if( exists %{$ini{$section}}, $parameter ) {...}
674 When tied to a hash, you use the Perl "keys" and "each" functions to
676 iteratively list the parameters ("keys") or parameters and their values
677 ("each") in a given section.
678 You can also use the Perl "exists" function to see if a parameter is
680 defined in a given section.
681 Note that none of these will return parameter names that are part of
683 the default section (if set), although accessing an unknown parameter
684 in the specified section will return a value from the default section
685 if there is one.
686 Section names
688 foreach( keys %ini ) {...}
689 while (($k, $v) = each %ini) {...}
690 if( exists %ini, $section ) {...}
691 When tied to a hash, you use the Perl "keys" and "each" functions to
693 iteratively list the sections in the ini file.
694 You can also use the Perl "exists" function to see if a section is
696 defined in the file.
697
699 The -import option to "new" allows one to stack one Config::IniFiles
700 object on top of another (which might be itself stacked in turn and so
701 on recursively, but this is beyond the point). The effect, as briefly
702 explained in "new", is that the fields appearing in the composite
703 object will be a superposition of those coming from the ``original''
704 one and the lines coming from the file, the latter taking precedence.
705 For example, let's say that $master and "overlay" were created like
706 this:
707 my $master = Config::IniFiles->new(-file => "master.ini");
709 my $overlay = Config::IniFiles->new(-file => "overlay.ini",
710 -import => $master);
711 If the contents of "master.ini" and "overlay.ini" are respectively
713 ; master.ini
715 [section1]
716 arg0=unchanged from master.ini
717 arg1=val1
718 [section2]
720 arg2=val2
721 and
723 ; overlay.ini
725 [section1]
726 arg1=overridden
727 Then "$overlay->val("section1", "arg1")" is "overridden", while
729 "$overlay->val("section1", "arg0")" is "unchanged from master.ini".
730 This feature may be used to ship a ``global defaults'' configuration
732 file for a Perl application, that can be overridden piecewise by a much
733 shorter, per-site configuration file. Assuming UNIX-style path names,
734 this would be done like this:
735 my $defaultconfig = Config::IniFiles->new
737 (-file => "/usr/share/myapp/myapp.ini.default");
738 my $config = Config::IniFiles->new
739 (-file => "/etc/myapp.ini", -import => $defaultconfig);
740 # Now use $config and forget about $defaultconfig in the rest of
741 # the program
742 Starting with version 2.39, Config::IniFiles also provides features to
744 keep the importing / per-site configuration file small, by only saving
745 those options that were modified by the running program. That is, if
746 one calls
747 $overlay->setval("section1", "arg1", "anotherval");
749 $overlay->newval("section3", "arg3", "val3");
750 $overlay->WriteConfig('overlay.ini', -delta=>1);
751 "overlay.ini" would now contain
753 ; overlay.ini
755 [section1]
756 arg1=anotherval
757 [section3]
759 arg3=val3
760 This is called a delta file (see "WriteConfig"). The untouched
762 [section2] and arg0 do not appear, and the config file is therefore
763 shorter; while of course, reloading the configuration into $master and
764 $overlay, either through "$overlay->ReadConfig()" or through the same
765 code as above (e.g. when application restarts), would yield exactly the
766 same result had the overlay object been saved in whole to the file
767 system.
768 The only problem with this delta technique is one cannot delete the
770 default values in the overlay configuration file, only change them.
771 This is solved by a file format extension, enabled by the
772 -negativedeltas option to "new": if, say, one would delete parameters
773 like this,
774 $overlay->DeleteSection("section2");
776 $overlay->delval("section1", "arg0");
777 $overlay->WriteConfig('overlay.ini', -delta=>1);
778 The overlay.ini file would now read:
780 ; overlay.ini
782 [section1]
783 ; arg0 is deleted
784 arg1=anotherval
785 ; [section2] is deleted
787 [section3]
789 arg3=val3
790 Assuming $overlay was later re-read with "-negativedeltas => 1", the
792 parser would interpret the deletion comments to yield the correct
793 result, that is, [section2] and arg0 would cease to exist in the
794 $overlay object.
795
797 @Config::IniFiles::errors
798 Contains a list of errors encountered while parsing the configuration
799 file. If the new method returns undef, check the value of this to find
800 out what's wrong. This value is reset each time a config file is read.
801
803 • The output from [Re]WriteConfig/OutputConfig might not be as pretty
804 as it can be. Comments are tied to whatever was immediately below
805 them. And case is not preserved for Section and Parameter names if
806 the -nocase option was used.
807 • No locking is done by [Re]WriteConfig. When writing servers, take
809 care that only the parent ever calls this, and consider making your
810 own backup.
811
813 Note that this is only a reference for the package maintainers - one of
814 the upcoming revisions to this package will include a total clean up of
815 the data structure.
816 $iniconf->{cf} = "config_file_name"
818 ->{startup_settings} = \%orginal_object_parameters
819 ->{imported} = $object WHERE $object->isa("Config::IniFiles")
820 ->{nocase} = 0
821 ->{reloadwarn} = 0
822 ->{sects} = \@sections
823 ->{mysects} = \@sections
824 ->{sCMT}{$sect} = \@comment_lines
825 ->{group}{$group} = \@group_members
826 ->{parms}{$sect} = \@section_parms
827 ->{myparms}{$sect} = \@section_parms
828 ->{EOT}{$sect}{$parm} = "end of text string"
829 ->{pCMT}{$sect}{$parm} = \@comment_lines
830 ->{v}{$sect}{$parm} = $value OR \@values
831 ->{e}{$sect} = 1 OR does not exist
832 ->{mye}{$sect} = 1 OR does not exists
833
835 The original code was written by Scott Hutton. Then handled for a time
836 by Rich Bowen (thanks!), and was later managed by Jeremy Wadsack
837 (thanks!), and now is managed by Shlomi Fish (
838 <http://www.shlomifish.org/> ) with many contributions from various
839 other people.
840 In particular, special thanks go to (in roughly chronological order):
842 Bernie Cosell, Alan Young, Alex Satrapa, Mike Blazer, Wilbert van de
844 Pieterman, Steve Campbell, Robert Konigsberg, Scott Dellinger, R.
845 Bernstein, Daniel Winkelmann, Pires Claudio, Adrian Phillips, Marek
846 Rouchal, Luc St Louis, Adam Fischler, Kay Roepke, Matt Wilson, Raviraj
847 Murdeshwar and Slaven Rezic, Florian Pfaff
848 Geez, that's a lot of people. And apologies to the folks who were
850 missed.
851 If you want someone to bug about this, that would be:
853 Shlomi Fish <shlomif@cpan.org>
855 If you want more information, or want to participate, go to:
857 <http://sourceforge.net/projects/config-inifiles/>
859 Please submit bug reports using the Request Tracker interface at
861 <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Config-IniFiles> .
862 Development discussion occurs on the mailing list
864 config-inifiles-dev@lists.sourceforge.net, which you can subscribe to
865 by going to the project web site (link above).
866
868 This software is copyright (c) 2000 by Scott Hutton and the rest of the
869 Config::IniFiles contributors.
870 This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
872 the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
873
875 Shlomi Fish <shlomif@cpan.org>
876
878 This software is copyright (c) 2000 by RBOW and others.
879 This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
881 the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
882
884 Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website
885 <https://github.com/shlomif/perl-Config-IniFiles/issues>
886 When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch
888 to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.
889
891 Perldoc
892 You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
893 perldoc Config::IniFiles
895 Websites
897 The following websites have more information about this module, and may
898 be of help to you. As always, in addition to those websites please use
899 your favorite search engine to discover more resources.
900 • MetaCPAN
902 A modern, open-source CPAN search engine, useful to view POD in
904 HTML format.
905 <https://metacpan.org/release/Config-IniFiles>
907 • RT: CPAN's Bug Tracker
909 The RT ( Request Tracker ) website is the default bug/issue
911 tracking system for CPAN.
912 <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Config-IniFiles>
914 • CPANTS
916 The CPANTS is a website that analyzes the Kwalitee ( code metrics )
918 of a distribution.
919 <http://cpants.cpanauthors.org/dist/Config-IniFiles>
921 • CPAN Testers
923 The CPAN Testers is a network of smoke testers who run automated
925 tests on uploaded CPAN distributions.
926 <http://www.cpantesters.org/distro/C/Config-IniFiles>
928 • CPAN Testers Matrix
930 The CPAN Testers Matrix is a website that provides a visual
932 overview of the test results for a distribution on various
933 Perls/platforms.
934 <http://matrix.cpantesters.org/?dist=Config-IniFiles>
936 • CPAN Testers Dependencies
938 The CPAN Testers Dependencies is a website that shows a chart of
940 the test results of all dependencies for a distribution.
941 <http://deps.cpantesters.org/?module=Config::IniFiles>
943 Bugs / Feature Requests
945 Please report any bugs or feature requests by email to
946 "bug-config-inifiles at rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
947 <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Report.html?Queue=Config-IniFiles>. You
948 will be automatically notified of any progress on the request by the
949 system.
950 Source Code
952 The code is open to the world, and available for you to hack on. Please
953 feel free to browse it and play with it, or whatever. If you want to
954 contribute patches, please send me a diff or prod me to pull from your
955 repository :)
956 <https://github.com/shlomif/perl-Config-IniFiles>
958 git clone git://github.com/shlomif/perl-Config-IniFiles.git
960perl v5.34.0 2021-07-22 Config::IniFiles(3)